POSSIBLE EXPLANATION FOR THE SUPERFICIALLY NEGATIVE ELECTRON-NEUTRINO-MASS-SQUARE OBSERVED IN NUCLEAR β-DECAYS

Abstract

The superficially negative mass square of the electron neutrino recently reported in several tritium β-decay experiments can be explained by a possible effect of the weak neutral current interaction of the produced neutrino with quarks in the nucleus, which has previously been predicted. The effect may present a serious obstacle to precise measurements of the neutrino mass within the accuracy of a few eV but, once established experimentally, it may be very useful to measure the weak mixing angle and the quark density in various nuclei.