Virtual and Soft Pair Corrections to Polarized Muon Decay Spectrum

Radiative corrections to the muon decay spectrum due to soft and virtual electron--positron pairs are calculated.Comment: 10pp, 2 PS figs, details of calculations are adde

Matter effects in the D0-D0bar system

We discuss the impact of matter effects in the D0-D0bar system. We show that such effects could, in principle, be measured, but that they cannot be used to probe the mass difference x_D or the lifetime difference y_D. This occurs because the mixing effects and the matter effects decouple at short times. We also comment briefly on the B systems.Comment: 6 pages, RevTe

Decay of polarized muon at rest as a source of polarized neutrino beam

In this paper, we indicate the theoretical possibility of using the decay of polarized muons at rest as a source of the transversely polarized electron antineutrino beam. Such a beam can be used to probe new effects beyond standard model. We mean here new tests concerning CP violation, Lorentz structure and chirality structure of the charged current weak interactions. The main goal is to show how the energy and angular distribution of the electron antineutrinos in the muon rest frame depends on the transverse components of the antineutrino beam polarization. Our analysis is model-independent and consistent with the current upper limits on the non-standard couplings. The results are presented in a limit of infinitesimally small mass for all particles produced in the decay.Comment: elsart style, 11 pages, 2 eps figures, submitted do publicatio

An Improved Limit on Invisible Decays of Positronium

The results of a new search for positronium decays into invisible final states are reported. Convincing detection of this decay mode would be a strong evid ence for new physics beyond the Standard Model (SM): for example the existence of extra--dimensions, of milli-charged particles, of new light gauge bosons or of mirror particles. Mirror matter could be a relevant dark matter candidate. In this paper the setup and the results of a new experiment are presented. In a collected sample of about $(6.31\pm0.28) \times 10^6$ orthopositronium decay s, no evidence for invisible decays in an energy window [0,80] keV was found and an upper limit on the branching ratio of orthopositronium \invdecay could be set: \binvdecay<4.2\times 10^{-7} (90% C.L.) Our results provide a limit on the photon mirror-photon mixing strength $\epsilon \leq 1.55\times 10^{-7}$ (90% C.L.) and rule out particles lighter than the electron mass with a fraction $Q_x \leq 3.4 \times 10^{-5}$ of the electron charge. Furthermore, upper limits on the branching ratios for the decay of parapositronium $Br(p-Ps\to invisible)\leq 4.3 \times 10^{-7}$ (90% C.L.) and the direct annihilation $Br(e^+e^-\to invisible)\leq 2.1 \times 10^{-8}$ (90% C.L.) could be set.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures, added references, fixed limit on millicharged particles and changed two plots accordingl

Improved limits on nuebar emission from mu+ decay

We investigated mu+ decays at rest produced at the ISIS beam stop target. Lepton flavor (LF) conservation has been tested by searching for \nueb via the detection reaction p(\nueb,e+)n. No \nueb signal from LF violating mu+ decays was identified. We extract upper limits of the branching ratio for the LF violating decay mu+ -> e+ \nueb \nu compared to the Standard Model (SM) mu+ -> e+ nue numub decay: BR < 0.9(1.7)x10^{-3} (90%CL) depending on the spectral distribution of \nueb characterized by the Michel parameter rho=0.75 (0.0). These results improve earlier limits by one order of magnitude and restrict extensions of the SM in which \nueb emission from mu+ decay is allowed with considerable strength. The decay \mupdeb as source for the \nueb signal observed in the LSND experiment can be excluded.Comment: 10 pages, including 1 figure, 1 tabl

Left-handed neutrino disappearance probe of neutrino mass and character

We explore the sensitivity to a non vanishing neutrino mass offered by dynamical observables, i.e., branching ratios and polarizations. The longitudinal polarization in the C.M. frame decreases by a 4% for $D^+ \rightarrow \tau^+ \nu_\tau$ and $m_{\nu_\tau}=24$ MeV. Taking advantage of the fact that the polarization is a Lorentz variant quantity, we study the polarization effects in a boosted frame. By means of a neutrino beam, produced by a high velocity boosted parent able to flip the neutrino helicity, we find that an enhanced left-handed neutrino deficit, induced by a Wigner rotation, appears.Comment: 8 pages and 2 figures. Last version accepted in PRL, new references and better analysis of experimental possibilitie

A Method to Determine the Tau Neutrino Helicity Using Polarized Taus

A method is presented to extract the tau neutrino helicity, or equivalently, the chirality parameter $\gamma_{\mathrm{VA}}$, independent of any tau polarization which may be present. The method is thus well-suited to measurements using taus produced from the $Z^0$ and is complementary to analyses using tau correlations since it provides the sign of the chirality parameter which is otherwise unavailable without recourse to lower energy experiments where taus are unpolarized. Results of Monte Carlo studies and comments regarding the use of the technique in experiments are also included.Comment: 13 pages, uuencoded postscript fil

Evidence for right-handed neutrinos at a neutrino factory

We emphasize that a muon based neutrino factory could show the existence of light right-handed neutrinos, if a deficit in the number of detected events is observed at a near detector. This could be as large as ~10% if the size of the new interactions saturates the present limits from electroweak precision data, what is not excluded by the oscillation experiments performed up to now. A simple model realizing such a scenario can be obtained adding right-handed neutrinos to the minimal Standard Model, together with an extra scalar doublet and a triplet of hypercharge 1. In this case, however, the possible deficit is reduced by a factor of ~3, and the Yukawa couplings must be adequately chosen. This is also generically required if lepton flavour violation must be below present bounds.Comment: Latex 18 pages, 2 eps figure

Tests of the Equivalence Principle with Neutral Kaons

We test the Principle of Equivalence for particles and antiparticles, using CPLEAR data on tagged K0 and K0bar decays into pi^+ pi^-. For the first time, we search for possible annual, monthly and diurnal modulations of the observables |eta_{+-}| and phi_{+-}, that could be correlated with variations in astrophysical potentials. Within the accuracy of CPLEAR, the measured values of |eta_{+-}| and phi_{+-} are found not to be correlated with changes of the gravitational potential. We analyze data assuming effective scalar, vector and tensor interactions, and we conclude that the Principle of Equivalence between particles and antiparticles holds to a level of 6.5, 4.3 and 1.8 x 10^{-9}, respectively, for scalar, vector and tensor potentials originating from the Sun with a range much greater than the distance Earth-Sun. We also study energy-dependent effects that might arise from vector or tensor interactions. Finally, we compile upper limits on the gravitational coupling difference between K0 and K0bar as a function of the scalar, vector and tensor interaction range.Comment: 15 pages latex 2e, five figures, one style file (cernart.csl) incorporate

Search for the Lepton Number Violating Process nu_mu-bar e^- -> mu^- nu_e-bar

The NuTeV experiment at Fermilab has used a sign-selected neutrino beam to perform a search for the lepton number violating process nu_mu-bar e^- -> mu^- nu_e-bar, and to measure the cross-section of the Standard Model inverse muon decay process nu_mu e^- -> mu^- nu_e. NuTeV measures the inverse muon decay asymptotic cross-section sigma/E to be 13.8 +/- 1.2 +/- 1.4 x 10^-42 cm^2/GeV. The experiment also observes no evidence for lepton number violation and places one of the most restrictive limits on the LNV/IMD cross-section ratio at < 1.7% at 90% C.L. for V-A couplings and < 0.6% for scalar couplings.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables. Submitted to Physics Review Letter