Azimuthal asymmetry of recoil electrons in neutrino–electron elastic scattering as signature of neutrino nature

Abstract

In this paper, we show how a presence of the exotic scalar, tensor weak interactions in addition to the standard vector-axial (V-A) one may help to distinguish the Dirac from Majorana neutrinos in the elastic scattering of (anti)neutrino beam off the unpolarized electrons in the limit of vanishing (anti)neutrino mass. We assume that the incoming (anti)neutrino beam comes from the polarized muon decay at rest and is the left-right chiral mixture with assigned direction of the transversal spin polarization with respect to the production plane. 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 distinct from the one for the Dirac neutrinos through the absence of interference between the standard and tensor couplings. Additionally, the interference term between the standard and scalar coupling of the only left chiral neutrinos, absent in the Dirac case, appears. We also indicate the possibility of utilizing the azimuthal asymmetry measurements to search for the new CPviolating phases. Our analysis is model-independent and consistent with the current upper limits on the non-standard couplings.