IMPROVED LIMIT ON CHARGE CONSERVATION DERIVED FROM GA-71 SOLAR-NEUTRINO EXPERIMENTS

The reported counting rates of the SAGE and GALLEX solar neutrino dete ctors have been used to establish an improved limit on the charge-nonc onserving decay Ga-71-->Ge-71 + neutrals. The 1 sigma lower limit on t he lifetime against such decays is 3.5 x 10(26) yr. This result can be used to establish a 1 sigma upper limit on the ratio of the charge-no nconserving to the normal weak interaction decay width of the neutron, Gamma(n-->p + v(e) + <(v)over bar (e)>)/Gamma(n-->p + e(-) + <(v)over bar (e)>)less than or equal to 8 X 10(-27). This result represents by far the most stringent limit yet derived for charge-nonconserving dec ays involving baryons.