Recent experimental data on superallowed transitions are used in a rede­termination of the decay coupling constants. It is suggested that the β-decay interaction may contain an admixture of vector coupling besides the usually adopted scalar and tensor interactions.

The phenomenon of nucleear beta decay reflects the workings of interactions which are very weak on the cale of those forces which determine the structure of the nucleus itself. Precisely for this reason beta decay provides an admirable probe for the study of nuclear structure. On the other hand, for those whose interest lies with the weak interactions in themselves, nuclei are admirable objects only insofar as they undergo beta disintegration. A generation ago, weak-interaction physics was coextensive with nuclear beta-decay physics; today the subject ranges over a much wider domain.

In 1934, Enrico Fermi proposed a theory of beta decay. Although it was supported by existing experimental evidence, a more detailed examination revealed discrepancies. Emil Konopinski and George Uhlenbeck proposed an alternative theory that better fit the results and was accepted by the physics community. It was later realized that both the experimental results and the experiment-theory comparison were incorrect. When both problems were corrected, in part by the work of Konopinski and Uhlenbeck themselves, Fermi’s theory was supported. As Konopinski publicly stated in a 1943 review article, “Thus, the evidence of the spectra, which has previously comprised the sole support for the K-U theory, now definitely fails to support it.

Previous speakers have already emphasized the importance of electron-neutrino angular correlations in identifying the basic interactions in β-decay. We have also seen that htere are some serious inconsistencies in the experimental situation. At the same time I should like to say that I can see no strong reason to reject any of these results. In this talk I propose to describe some of the difficulties one encounters in this kind of work and to illustrate these with a dscription of the experiment on Ne^23.

This volume is a beautiful memorial to Wolfgang Pauli and a reminder of the fragility of human fate. As the editors relate, several years ago a volume was planned to celebrate the sixtieth birthday of Pauli; the aim was to summarize the progress in those topics of physics which were near to Pauli's heart, and to discuss Pauli's influence on the development of physics during the 1930's. However, what started as a celebration turned into a memorial with Pauli's untimely death. This change in the course of events makes it understandable that the only contributions which deal with Pauli himself are a brief preface by Niels Bohr and a bibliography of Pauli's papers by C. P. Ens, since no epitaph can be written for a living person. — Nandor L. Balazs, Princeton University
 

Beta Decay, by C. S. Wu and S. A. Moszkowski, is an excellent book, a refreshing book, highly recommended. Until it was written, a comprehensive knowledge of beta decay could be obtained only by studying many articles written by as many authors using a variety of notations. Now we have the coherent story written without pedantry, mixing experimental fact and theory in just proportion.

Synchrotron radiation from modern electron storage rings can furnish brighter sources of Mössbauer radiation than radioactive sources if appropriate filtering can be devised. The object is to pass the power in the synchrotron radiation which lies in the spectral range within a few natural widths of the nuclear resonance, with as little diminuition as possible, and to reduce that passed outside this range to a fraction of the filtered radiation.

This was the beginning of a study in complementarity coherence and interference which plagues all efforts to understand the Mössbauer effect....If the electron is described in a way which loois sharp to a "position measuring" physicist, it looks fuzzy to a "momentum measuring" physicist. If it looks sharp to a "momentum measuring" physicist, it looks fuzzy to a "position measuring" physicist.

TOPICS OF THE WORKSHOP

1. New and neglected techniques, including synchrotron radiation sources, focussing and guiding, resonant Bragg scattering, Rayleigh scattering, selective excitation, techniques for detecting small effects, new uses of ultra-low temperatures.
2. Coherence phenomena.
3. New isotopes of special interest.
4. Relativeity experiments.
5. Mixed Technology: r-f experiments, beta spectrometry, etc.
6. Nuclear physics, electromagnetic moments, charge and moment distrirbution in nuclei, symmetries from Mössbauer experiments, experiments in accelerator beams.
7. Other ideas, experiments, or theory that fit with the framework of the Workshop title.