Spin-dependent ${\mu \to e}$ Conversion on Light Nuclei

Abstract

The experimental sensitivity to $\mu \to e$ conversion will improve by four or more orders of magnitude in coming years, making it interesting to consider the "spin-dependent" (SD) contribution to the rate. This process does not benefit from the atomic-number-squared enhancement of the spin-independent (SI) contribution, but probes different operators. We give details of our recent estimate of the spin dependent rate, expressed as a function of operator coefficients at the experimental scale, and explore the prospects for distinguishing coefficients by using different targets. For this purpose, a geometric representation of different targets as vectors in coefficient space is introduced. It is found that comparing the rate on isotopes with and without spin could allow to detect spin dependent coefficients that are at least a factor of few larger than the spin independent ones. Distinguishing among the axial, tensor and pseudoscalar operators that induce the SD rate would require calculating the nuclear matrix elements for the second two. Comparing the SD rate on nuclei with an odd proton vs odd neutron could allow to distinguish operators involving $u$ quarks from those involving $d$ quarks; this is interesting because the distinction is difficult to make for SI operators.