The Electron-Neutron Interaction

The known electromagnetic properties of nucleons, assuming that the electron-neutron interaction is fundamentally of electromagnetic origin, are fitted into the phenomenological framework developed in the preceding paper and the results compared with predictions of weak coupling meson theories. The detailed comparison shows that the intrinsic electron-neutron interaction is somewhat smaller than predicted and it is suggested that even in the more favorable cases, the rough agreement as to order of magnitude may be largely due to a fortuitious cancellation of different contributions, which may easily be upset when higher order effects are included in the theory. Even apart from the detailed calculations, it is indicated that the observed intrinsic electron-neutron interaction is considerably smaller than order-of-magnitude expectations from general meson-theoretical principles. The results emphasize the importance of more accurate experimental determinations of the electron-neutron interaction, since a smaller value of the intrinsic interaction will either pose a very stringent test for any meson theory or require a critical re-evaluation of our present ideas regarding nucleonic structure. Some phenomena related to the electron-neutron interaction and the possibility that the intrinsic interaction may be nonelectromagnetic in origin are briefly discussed.