Precision theoretical analysis of neutron radiative beta decay to order O(α2/π2)

Abstract

In the Standard Model (SM) we calculate the decay rate of the neutron radiative beta decay to order "O(\alpha^2/\pi^2 ~ 10^{-5})", where "\alpha$"is the fine--structure constant, and radiative corrections to order "O(\alpha/\pi ~ 10^{-3})". The obtained results together with the recent analysis of the neutron radiative beta decay to next-to-leading order in the large proton-mass expansion, performed by Ivanov et al. Phys. Rev. D95, 033007 (2017), describe recent experimental data by the RDK II Collaboration (Bales et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 242501 (2016)) within 1.5 standard deviations. We argue a substantial influence of strong low-energy interactions of hadrons coupled to photons on the properties of the amplitude of the neutron radiative beta decay under gauge transformations of real and virtual photons.