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Probing Majorana neutrinos in rare π + → e + e + μ − ν decays

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Abstract

We study the rare decays of charged π mesons, π + → e + e + μ − \( \overline v \) μ and π + → e + μ − e + ν e induced by a sterile neutrino N with a mass in the range m μ  < m N  < m π . The first process violates Lepton Number by two units and so occurs only if N is Majorana, while the second process conserves Lepton Number and occurs irrespective of the Majorana or Dirac character of N . We study a way to distinguish the Majorana vs. Dirac character of N in these processes using the muon spectrum. We also find that the branching ratios could be at the reach of high luminosity experiments like Project X at FNAL or any proposed neutrino (or muon) factories worldwide.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro Cientıfico-Tecnológico de Valpara´ıso and Department of Physics, Universidad Técnica Federico Santa Marıa, Casilla 110-V, Valparaíso, Chile

    Gorazd Cvetič & Claudio Dib

  2. Dept. of Physics and IPAP, Yonsei University, Seoul, 120-749, Korea

    C. S. Kim

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  1. Gorazd Cvetič
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  2. Claudio Dib
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  3. C. S. Kim
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Correspondence to Claudio Dib.

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ArXiv ePrint: 1203.0573

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Cvetič, G., Dib, C. & Kim, C.S. Probing Majorana neutrinos in rare π + → e + e + μ − ν decays. J. High Energ. Phys. 2012, 149 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP06(2012)149

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP06(2012)149

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