No Arabic abstract
This paper is addressed to the analysis of the set of observables of the bound-state beta-decay, which can be used for the experimental investigation of contributions of i) interactions beyond the Standard Model (SM) and of ii) the left-handed polarisation state of antineutrinos. For this aim we calculate the branching ratio, probabilities and angular distributions of probabilities of hydrogen in the hyperfine states and of the proton-electron pair in different spinorial states, induced by left-handed and right-handed hadronic and leptonic currents. The branching ratio of the bound-state beta-decay is calculated by taking into account radiative corrections. We show that the probabilities of the bound-state beta-decay can be good observables for experimental investigations of contributions of interactions beyond the SM, whereas the angular distributions of probabilities are good observables for experimental searches of contributions of the left-handed polarisation state of antineutrinos.
In the framework of the Standard Model (SM) a theoretical description of the neutron beta decay is given at the level of 10^{-5}. The neutron lifetime and correlation coefficients of the neutron beta decay for a polarized neutron, a polarized electron and an unpolarized proton are calculated at the account for i) the radiative corrections of order O(alpha E_e/m_N) ~ 10^{-5} to Sirlins outer and inner radiative corrections of order O(alpha/pi), ii) the corrections of order O(E^2_e/m^2_N) ~ 10^{-5}, caused by weak magnetism and proton recoil, and iii) Wilkinsons corrections of order 10^{-5} (Wilkinson, Nucl. Phys. A377, 474 (1982)). These corrections define the SM background of the theoretical description of the neutron beta decay at the level of 10^{-5}, which is required by experimental searches of interactions beyond the SM with experimental uncertainties of a few parts of 10^{-5}.
Neutrinoless double beta decay, which is a very old and yet elusive process, is reviewed. Its observation will signal that lepton number is not conserved and the neutrinos are Majorana particles. More importantly it is our best hope for determining the absolute neutrino mass scale at the level of a few tens of meV. To achieve the last goal certain hurdles have to be overcome involving particle, nuclear and experimental physics. Nuclear physics is important for extracting the useful information from the data. One must accurately evaluate the relevant nuclear matrix elements, a formidable task. To this end, we review the sophisticated nuclear structure approaches recently been developed, which give confidence that the needed nuclear matrix elements can be reliably calculated. From an experimental point of view it is challenging, since the life times are long and one has to fight against formidable backgrounds. If a signal is found, it will be a tremendous accomplishment. Then, of course, the real task is going to be the extraction of the neutrino mass from the observations. This is not trivial, since current particle models predict the presence of many mechanisms other than the neutrino mass, which may contribute or even dominate this process. We will, in particular, consider the following processes: (i)The neutrino induced, but neutrino mass independent contribution. (ii)Heavy left and/or right handed neutrino mass contributions. (iii)Intermediate scalars (doubly charged etc). (iv)Supersymmetric (SUSY) contributions. We will show that it is possible to disentangle the various mechanisms and unambiguously extract the important neutrino mass scale, if all the signatures of the reaction are searched in a sufficient number of nuclear isotopes.
The interference of charge-changing interactions, weaker than the V-A Standard Model (SM) interaction and having a different Lorentz structure, with that SM interaction, can, in principle, produce effects near the end point of the Tritium beta decay spectrum which are of a different character from those produced by the purely kinematic effect of neutrino mass expected in the simplest extension of the SM. We show that the existence of more than one mass eigenstate can lead to interference effects at the end point that are stronger than those occurring over the entire spectrum. We discuss these effects both for the special case of Dirac neutrinos and the more general case of Majorana neutrinos and show that, for the present precision of the experiments, one formula should suffice to express the interference effects in all cases. Implications for sterile neutrinos are noted.
Study of the neutrinoless double beta decay and searches for the manifestation of the neutrino mass in ordinary beta decay are the main sources of information about the absolute neutrino mass scale, and the only practical source of information about the charge conjugation properties of the neutrinos. Thus, these studies have a unique role in the plans for better understanding of the whole fast expanding field of neutrino physics.
We calculate the continuum- and bound-state l^- decay rates of pionic and kaonic hydrogen in the ground state, where l^- is either the electron or the muon.