Weak-Interaction Tests via Precision Superallowed $\beta$-Decay Studies at TRIUMF

TL;DR

This paper reviews precision superallowed beta-decay experiments at TRIUMF, which test the weak interaction and search for new physics, highlighting experimental techniques and recent theoretical advances in decay correction calculations.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of 15 years of experimental methods and recent theoretical progress in superallowed beta-decay studies at TRIUMF.

Findings

High-precision measurements of decay parameters at TRIUMF

Improved theoretical calculations of isospin-symmetry-breaking corrections

Constraints on new physics from superallowed beta-decay data

Abstract

Superallowed $\beta$-decay studies provide some of the best constraints on the possibility of additional quark generations, as well as limits on exotic currents in the weak interaction. The three experimental quantities that are required for performing these tests using $0^+\rightarrow0^+$ nuclear decays (branching ratio, half-life, and $Q$-value) can all be measured to high-precision with rare-isotope beams at the TRIUMF-ISAC facility in Vancouver, Canada. This proceeding presents a brief outline of the general experimental techniques used at TRIUMF over the past 15 years, as well as recent theoretical advances towards {\it ab-initio} isospin-symmetry-breaking corrections to superallowed nuclear decays.