Weak decay of the positronium ion

Abstract

The positronium ion ($\mathrm{Ps}^-$), a coulombic three-body bound state of two electrons and a positron, predominantly decays via electron-positron annihilation into electromagnetic final states. While its radiative decay channels have been extensively studied, much less attention has been given to weak processes in this system. In this work, we investigate the rare decay $\mathrm{Ps}^- \to e^- \nu_\mu \bar{\nu}_\mu$, obtained by replacing the photon in $\mathrm{Ps}^- \to e^- \gamma$ with a virtual $Z$ boson. Treating the three-body process as an effective two-body transition, $\mathrm{Ps}^- \to e^- Z^*\left(\to \nu_\mu\bar{\nu}_\mu\right)$, we compute the decay rate by explicitly evaluating all spin configurations of the initial bound state and final particles. The result agrees with that obtained using the standard spin-summation formalism of quantum field theory. We find that the branching ratio is comparable to that of the weak decay of ortho-positronium, $\mathrm{o\text{-}Ps} \to \gamma \nu \bar{\nu}$.