New Parameterization in Muon Decay and the Type of Emitted Neutrino

Abstract

Normal muon decay, $μ^{+} \to e^{+}ν_{e}\bar{ν_μ}$, is studied as a tool to discriminate between the Dirac and Majorana types of neutrinos and to survey the structure of the weak interaction. It is assumed that massive neutrinos mix with one another and that the interaction Hamiltonian consists of the $V-A$ and $V+A$ charged currents. A new set of parameters used in place of the Michel parameters is proposed for the positron distribution. Explicit forms of these new parameters are obtained by assuming that the masses are less than 10 eV for light neutrinos and sufficiently large for heavy Majorana neutrinos, which are not emitted in the muon decay. It is shown that a possible method to discriminate between the Dirac and Majorana cases is to use a characterization given by the $χ^2$ fitting of their spectra. It is also confirmed that the theoretical predictions in the Majorana neutrino case are almost the same as those obtained from the standard model. Indeed, their differences cannot be distinguished within the present experimental precision.