No Arabic abstract
The KATRIN experiment aims to determine the absolute neutrino mass by measuring the endpoint region of the tritium $beta$ spectrum. As a large-scale experiment with a sharp energy resolution, high source luminosity and low background it may also be capable of testing certain theories of neutrino interactions beyond the standard model (SM). An example of a non-SM interaction are right-handed currents mediated by right-handed W bosons in the left-right symmetric model (LRSM). In this extension of the SM, an additional SU(2)$_mathrm R$ symmetry in the high-energy limit is introduced, which naturally includes sterile neutrinos and predicts the seesaw mechanism. In tritium $beta$ decay, this leads to an additional term from interference between left- and right-handed interactions, which enhances or suppresses certain regions near the endpoint of the beta spectrum. In this work, the sensitivity of KATRIN to right-handed currents is estimated for the scenario of a light sterile neutrino with a mass of some eV. This has been performed with a Bayesian analysis using Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC). The simulations show that in principle KATRIN is able to set sterile neutrino mass-dependent limits on the interference strength. Thereby, the sensitivity is significantly increased if the $Q$ value of the $beta$ decay can be sufficiently constrained. However, the sensitivity is not high enough to improve current upper limits from right-handed W boson searches at the LHC.
The muon-to-electron conversion in nuclei like aluminum, titanium and gold is studied in the context of a class of mirror fermion model with non-sterile right-handed neutrinos having mass at the electroweak scale. At the limit of zero momentum transfer and large mirror lepton masses, we derive a simple formula to relate the conversion rate with the on-shell radiative decay rate of muon into electron. Current experimental limits (SINDRUM II) and projected sensitivities (Mu2e, COMET and PRISM) for the muon-to-electron conversion rates in various nuclei and latest limit from MEG for the radiative decay rate of muon into electron are used to put constraints on the parameter space of the model. Depending on the nuclei targets used in different experiments, for the mirror lepton mass in the range of 100 to 800 GeV, the sensitivities of the new Yukawa couplings one can probe in the near future are in the range of one tenth to one hundred-thousandth, depending on the mixing scenarios in the model.
The electric dipole moment of the electron is studied in detail in an extended mirror fermion model with the following unique features of (a) right-handed neutrinos are non-sterile and have masses at the electroweak scale, and (b) a horizontal symmetry of the tetrahedral group is used in the lepton and scalar sectors. We study the constraint on the parameter space of the model imposed by the latest ACME experimental limit on electron electric dipole moment. Other low energy experimental observables such as the anomalous magnetic dipole moment of the muon, charged lepton flavor violating processes like muon decays into electron plus photon and muon-to-electron conversion in titanium, gold and lead are also considered in our analysis for comparison. In addition to the well-known CP violating Dirac and Majorana phases in the neutrino mixing matrix, the dependence of additional phases of the new Yukawa couplings in the model is studied in detail for all these low energy observables.
Several models of neutrino masses predict the existence of neutral heavy leptons. Here, we review current constraints on heavy neutrinos and apply a new formalism separating new physics from Standard Model. We discuss also the indirect effect of extra heavy neutrinos in oscillation experiments.
Recent lattice determinations of direct CP violation in kaon decays, parametrized by $epsilon$, suggest a discrepancy of several sigma between experiment and the standard model. Assuming that this situation is due to new physics, we investigate a solution in terms of right-handed charged currents. Chiral perturbation theory, in combination with lattice QCD results, allows one to accurately determine the effect of right-handed interactions on $epsilon$. In addition, similar techniques provide a direct link between the right-handed contributions to $epsilon$ and hadronic electric dipole moments. We demonstrate that the $epsilon$ discrepancy can be resolved with right-handed charged currents, and that this scenario can be falsified by next-generation hadronic electric dipole moment experiments.
We study the equilibration of the right-helicity states of light Dirac neutrinos in the early universe by solving the momentum dependent Boltzmann equations numerically. We show that the main effect is due to electroweak gauge boson poles, which enhance thermalization rates by some three orders of magnitude. The right-helicity states of tau neutrinos will be brought in equilibrium independently of their initial distribution at a temperature above the poles if the tau neutrino mass is larger than about 10 keV.