Weak Interaction Studies by Precision Experiments in Nuclear Beta Decay

Abstract

The framework and formalism related to the study of symmetries and the structure of the weak interaction in nuclear β-decay are presented and discussed. This is illustrated with a number of selected experiments in nuclear β-decay addressing the unitarity of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix, the search for right-handed (V+A), scalar and tensor components in the weak interaction and the search for non-Standard Model sources of time reversal violation. Finally, an outlook is given on important progress in this field that can be expected for the near future.