Abstract
We study the rare decays of charged π mesons, π + → e + e + μ − \( \overline v \) μ and π + → e + μ − e + ν e induced by a sterile neutrino N with a mass in the range m μ < m N < m π . The first process violates Lepton Number by two units and so occurs only if N is Majorana, while the second process conserves Lepton Number and occurs irrespective of the Majorana or Dirac character of N . We study a way to distinguish the Majorana vs. Dirac character of N in these processes using the muon spectrum. We also find that the branching ratios could be at the reach of high luminosity experiments like Project X at FNAL or any proposed neutrino (or muon) factories worldwide.
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Cvetič, G., Dib, C. & Kim, C.S. Probing Majorana neutrinos in rare π + → e + e + μ − ν decays. J. High Energ. Phys. 2012, 149 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP06(2012)149
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP06(2012)149