Book Description

The possible existence of a potential interaction between neutron and electron has been investigated by examining the asymmetry of thermal neutron scattering from xenon. It has been found that the scattering in the center-of-gravity system shows exceedingly little asymmetry. By assuming an interaction of a range equal to the classical electron radius, the depth of the potential well has been found to be 300℗±5000 ev. This result is compared with estimates based on the mesotron theory according to which the depth should be 12000 ev. It is concluded that the interaction is not larger than that expected from the mesotron theory; that, however, no definite contradiction of the mesotron theory can be drawn at present, partly because of the possibility that the experimental error may have been understimated, and partly because of the indefiniteness of the theories which makes the theoretical estimate uncertain.