  We have calculated (ab initio) and measured (by spin-echo techniques) the
anharmonic self-energy of phonons at the X-point of the Brillouin zone for
isotopically pure germanium. The real part agrees with former, less accurate,
high temperature data obtained by inelastic neutron scattering on natural
germanium. For the imaginary part our results provide evidence that transverse
acoustic phonons at the X-point are very long lived at low temperatures, i.e.
their probability of decay approaches zero, as a consequence of an unusual
decay mechanism allowed by energy conservation.
