Initial Tests Of The Pion Beta Decay Detector - 2.2.1 Theoretical motivation

2.2.1 Theoretical motivation

In the forms of the weak current for leptonic and hadronic interactions, a fundamental difference is seen between their associated currents:

leptonic weak current:

hadronic weak current:

where G_A/G_V ~ 1.26 and G_V ~ 1. One might expect that the hadronic weak current would be different because of a renormalization due to the hadrons interacting strongly with the surrounding virtual pion field. The question becomes "Why is G_A so different while G_V is (virtually) unchanged when comparing hadronic and leptonic weak currents?" The answer lies in the conservation of electric charge.