Abstract
Within the context of the Weinberg-Salam (standard) model we study possible effects of weak interactions in positronium (Ps), such as parity mixing and weak decays of Ps states. As expected, weak interaction amplitudes in Ps turn out to be extremely small, their magnitude being characterized byG·m 2e ≃3·10−12 whereG is Fermi's constant andm e the electron mass. We show that the standard model forbids parity-violating correlations in a large class of Ps reactions and decays due to CP conservation in the lepton sector. We then consider situations in which parity-odd effects in Ps will occur in the standard model and may even be large enough to be observable. Beyond the context of the standard model we discuss the decay of orthopositronium into a photon and the hypothetical axion under the assumption that the mass of the axion is smaller than twice the mass of the electron.
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Bernreuther, W., Nachtmann, O. Weak interaction effects in positronium. Z. Phys. C - Particles and Fields 11, 235–245 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01545680
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01545680