Atomic effects in tritium beta decay

Abstract

The electron neutrino mass has been measured in several tritium beta decay experiments. These experiments are sensitive to a small neutrino mass because the energy release of the decay is small. But the very smallness of the energy release implies that the Coulomb interactions of the slowly moving emitted beta electron are relatively large. Using field theoretic techniques, we derive a systematic and controlled expansion which accounts for the Coulomb effects, including the mutual interaction of the beta ray electron and the electron in the final $^3{\rm He}^+$ ion. In our formulation, an effective potential which describes the long range Coulomb force experienced by the beta ray is introduced to ensure that our expansion is free of infrared divergences. Both the exclusive differential decay rate to a specific final $^3{\rm He}^+$ state and the inclusive differential decay rate are calculated to order $η^2$, where $η$ is the usual Coulomb parameter. We analyze the order $η^2$ correction to the beta ray spectrum and estimate how it may affect the neutrino mass squared parameter and the endpoint energy when this corrected spectrum is used to compare with the experiments. We find that the effect is small.