Molecular Excitation in Beta Decay

The theory of molecular excitation in beta decay is developed for the general case of a polyatomic molecule. Calculations of the daughter molecule vibrational excitation are carried through for diatomic molecules, and the results are presented graphically. Finally, the formation of the (He³H³)⁺ molecule ion in the decay of one nucleus of a tritium molecule is studied in detail. It is concluded that the (He³H³)⁺ ground electronic state vibrational spectrum should be observable in the light spontaneously emitted by tritium. For example, neglecting nonradiative transitions, one expects approximately 10¹⁴ photons per second to be radiated at wave number {}2.35×{}10³ cm^-1 by every gram of tritium in the 1{→}0 vibrational transition.