ADIABATIC AND NONADIABATIC CORRECTIONS TO BETA-DECAY OF THE TRITIUM ATOM

The theoretical analysis of the environmental effects during beta deca y is associated with the solution of a multiparticle problem in quantu m mechanics. In the general case, we should take into account effects arising from the changing nuclear charge as well as the electromagneti c interaction of the beta particle with the atomic electron. In this p aper, we consider beta decay in the simplest atomic structure-the trit ium atom, and calculate both adiabatic and non-adiabatic corrections t o the traditional beta decay theory. The results of these calculations have a significant bearing on the extraction of neutrino mass from ve ry accurate measurements of the beta spectrum of tritium.