Nucleon-Nucleon Short-Ranged Correlations, $\beta$ Decay and the Unitarity of the CKM Matrix

Abstract

The influence of nucleon-nucleon short-ranged correlations (SRC) on nuclear super-allowed $\beta$ decay is examined. The need for this is driven by the observed depletion of spectroscopic strength obtained in studies of $(e,e')$ and $(d,^3{\rm He})$ reactions on a wide variety of nuclei. We show that the influence of SRC is model-dependent, but may be very substantial. The $^{46}$V nucleus is used as an example. The resulting impact on studies of the unitarity of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM) matrix element is discussed.