Probing the neutrino mass through semileptonic meson decays

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Abstract
We argue that a detailed analysis of semileptonic decays can test the possibility of a massive neutrino. The key observable, related to the forward–backward asymmetry, is exactly zero for a massless neutrino but becomes nonzero if the neutral lepton is heavy and interacts with Standard Model fields via lefthanded operators. For righthanded interactions, this quantity differs significantly from zero even for a massless righthanded neutrino. We demonstrate this explicitly using the example of a pseudoscalar meson decaying into another pseudoscalar meson. A similar discussion applies to decays into a vector meson, with an additional subtlety addressed in this work.
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Funding Information
  • The Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency (P1-0035)
  • The Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency (N1-0321)
  • The Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency (N1-0407)
  • Horizon 2020 Framework Programme (860881-HIDDeN)

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