Researchers from the Institute of High Energy Physics in China, including Yu-Qi Xiao, Xiao-Gang He, Hong-Yi Niu, and Rong-Rong Zhang, have revisited a specific type of particle physics interaction that could have significant implications for our understanding of the universe and potentially impact the energy sector. Their work focuses on a process called muon-electron conversion, which is a rare event that could indicate the presence of new physics beyond the standard model.
The standard model of particle physics predicts an extremely low rate for muon-electron conversion, making it an excellent probe for testing lepton-flavor-violating interactions, which are interactions that change the “flavor” or type of leptons (a category of fundamental particles that includes electrons, muons, and neutrinos). One theoretical model that can induce these interactions is the Supersymmetric model with R-parity violating interactions. In their study, the researchers considered the effects of renormalization group running, which describes how the parameters of a theory change as the energy scale changes. They found that these effects can influence the limits on certain combinations of trilinear couplings, which are parameters in the model, by up to 80% in some cases.
The researchers compared the muon-electron conversion data with other experimental data, such as muon to electron gamma and muon to electron-electron-electron decays, to provide upper limits on the relevant combinations of trilinear couplings. They found that certain combinations, which were underexplored in previous studies, could be significantly constrained by the muon-electron conversion data. The researchers also noted that upcoming experiments, such as COMET and Mu2e, are expected to provide even more stringent constraints on muon-electron conversion and could deepen our understanding of lepton-flavor-violating interactions and the underlying new physics contributions.
While this research is primarily focused on fundamental particle physics, it could have implications for the energy sector in the long term. For example, a deeper understanding of the fundamental forces and particles that make up the universe could potentially lead to new technologies for energy generation, storage, or transmission. However, any practical applications of this research are likely to be many years in the future, as the underlying physics is still not fully understood. The research was published in the journal Physical Review D.
This article is based on research available at arXiv.