Tritium decay and the hypothesis of tachyonic neutrinos

Abstract. Numerous recent measurements indicate an excess of counts near the endpoint of the electron energy spectrum in tritium decay. We show that this effect is expected if the neutrino is a tachyon. Results of calculations, based on a unitary (causal) theory of tachyons, are presented. The hypothesis of tachyonic neutrinos also offers a natural explanation of the vector-axial (V-A) structure of the weak leptonic current in neutrino interactions.