Nuclear decay studies and weak interactions Original Research Article

The study of beta decay contributes to our knowledge on both the fundamental aspects of the weak interaction and the nuclear structure. Moreover, this process plays an essential role in the definition of the astrophysical scenarios. The extensive work performed on Fermi transitions, double beta decay and first forbidden transitions allows to test predictions of the Standard Model. For nuclear structure, a specific feature of beta decay is the possibility to compare theoretical evaluations with experimental information over a wide range of masses. Nuclear gross properties and detailed nuclear structure information can be obtained in many cases far from stability.