Neutrino mass effect on the nuclear muon capture

Abstract

Multipole expansion of the partial transition amplitude in the nuclear muon capture with massive lefthanded Dirac neutrino has been derived. The multipole amplitudes for the partial nuclear transitions are given as the explicit functions of the neutrino mass parameter. As an example, the capture rate, the recoil asymmetry and the neutrino polarization are investigated in terms of these multipole amplitudes. The transversal neutrino polarization provides a connection between theT-violation and the neutrino mass: ifT-odd component in the neutrino polarization is observed, then neutrino must be a massive particle. It turns out that in the capture rate and recoil polarization, the effects due to very small neutrino mass can be proportional to the square ratio of the neutrino mass to its momentum, while the neutrino transversal polarization is proportional to this ratio only. Under the recent limits on the muon neutrino mass, the observable effects inthe partial transition may be below the order of ≃10−3.