https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-016-4077-x
Regular Article - Theoretical Physics
Azimuthal asymmetry of recoil electrons in neutrino–electron elastic scattering as signature of neutrino nature
Institute of Theoretical Physics, University of Wrocław, Pl. M. Born 9, 50-204, Wrocław, Poland
* e-mail: wieslaw.sobkow@ift.uni.wroc.pl
Received:
15
February
2016
Accepted:
8
April
2016
Published online:
5
May
2016
In this paper, we analyze the theoretically possible scenario beyond the standard model in order to show how the presence of the exotic scalar, tensor, 
weak interactions in addition to the standard vector-axial (
) ones may help to distinguish the Dirac from Majorana neutrinos in the elastic scattering of an (anti)neutrino beam off the unpolarized electrons in the relativistic limit. We assume that the incoming (anti)neutrino beam comes from the polarized muon decay at rest and is the left–right chiral superposition with assigned direction of the transversal spin polarization with respect to the production plane. Our analysis is carried out for the flavour (current) neutrino eigenstates. It means that the transverse neutrino polarization estimates are the same both for the Dirac and Majorana cases. We display that the azimuthal asymmetry in the angular distribution of recoil electrons is generated by the interference terms between the standard and exotic couplings, which are proportional to the transversal (anti)neutrino spin polarization and independent of the neutrino mass. This asymmetry for the Majorana neutrinos is larger than for the Dirac ones. We also indicate the possibility of utilizing the azimuthal asymmetry measurements to search for the new CP-violating phases. Our study is based on the assumption that the possible detector (running for 1 year) has the shape of a flat circular ring, while the intense neutrino source is located in the centre of the ring and polarized perpendicularly to the ring. In addition, the large low-threshold, real-time detector is able to measure with a high resolution both the polar angle and the azimuthal angle of outgoing electron momentum. Our analysis is model-independent and consistent with the current upper limits on the non-standard couplings.
© The Author(s), 2016
