Majoron decay of neutrinos in matter

Journal Article · Sun Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1992 · Physical Review, D (Particles Fields); (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.45.1557· OSTI ID:7048902

Giunti, C; Kim, C W; Lee, U W ^[1]; Lam, W P ^[2]

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1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218 (United States)
2. Institute of Physics, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan 11529 (Taiwan, Province of China)

Using an helicity formalism for Majorana neutrino fields, we calculate the decay rates for the helicity-flipping and helicity-conserving Majoron decays of neutrinos propagating in dense media. We discuss the subtlety involved in the neutrino mixing in matter in a quantum-field-theoretical approach to clarify previous misunderstandings in the calculation of Majoron decays. General formulas, derived in a model-independent approach, can be applied to any number of neutrino generations and to the decay with production of any massless pseudoscalar boson. In particular, we discuss the two-generation case and show that {ital in} {ital matter} the helicity-flipping decays are dominant over the helicity-conserving decays. The implications of the Majoron decay for the neutrinos from astrophysical objects are also briefly discussed.

• OSTI ID: 7048902
• Journal Information: Physical Review, D (Particles Fields); (United States), Journal Name: Physical Review, D (Particles Fields); (United States) Vol. 45:5; ISSN PRVDA; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

662110* -- General Theory of Particles & Fields-- Theory of Fields & Strings-- (1992-)
662370 -- Decays of Leptons-- (1992-)
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
ASTROPHYSICS
BOSONS
COUPLING CONSTANTS
DECAY
EIGENSTATES
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
FERMIONS
FIELD THEORIES
FUNCTIONS
HELICITY
LAGRANGIAN FUNCTION
LEPTONS
LIE GROUPS
MAJORANA THEORY
MASSLESS PARTICLES
MATHEMATICAL SPACE
NEUTRINOS
PARTICLE DECAY
PARTICLE PROPERTIES
PHASE SPACE
QUANTUM FIELD THEORY
SPACE
SU GROUPS
SU-2 GROUPS
SYMMETRY GROUPS