Cross section for scattering of gauge bosons and Majorana neutrinos

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SUMMARY

The forum discussion centers on the calculation of two-body scattering processes involving right-handed Majorana neutrinos and gauge bosons, as outlined in the paper hep-ph/0309342. The user, Denis Besak, encounters issues reproducing results for processes (2) N + L => V + H and (3) N + H => V + L, specifically obtaining a negative amplitude squared for the s-channel contribution |M_s|^2. The discussion highlights potential violations of the Ward identity and the need for "contact terms" in the calculations, as well as concerns regarding the polarization sums for massless SU(2) gauge bosons.

PREREQUISITES
  • Understanding of Majorana neutrinos and their properties
  • Familiarity with gauge bosons, specifically SU(2) and U(1) symmetries
  • Knowledge of Feynman diagrams and scattering processes in quantum field theory
  • Experience with the Ward identity and its implications in particle physics
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  • Research the implications of the Ward identity in gauge theories
  • Study the concept of contact terms in quantum field theory calculations
  • Examine polarization sums for massless gauge bosons in scattering processes
  • Review the methodology for calculating scattering amplitudes in two-body processes
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Particle physicists, graduate students working on quantum field theory, and researchers focusing on neutrino interactions and gauge boson scattering processes.

denis.besak@gmx.de
For my diploma thesis I must provide a calculation that reproduces the
results given on page 46 of the paper hep-ph/0309342 . For those who do
not want to look it up, I briefly explain what it is about: It concerns
the two-body scattering processes

(1) N + V => L + H,
(2) N + L => V + H,
(3) N + H => V + L

where N denotes a right-handed Majorana neutrino, L and H are the SM
lepton and Higgs doublet and V represents either a SU(2) or U(1) gauge
boson. The processes are considered in the early universe, where
SU(2)xU(1) is unbroken and L and V are massless (but N is not). The
Higgs mass is also neglected since m_H << m_N, but this is of minor
importance here. The Majorana neutrino has a Yukawa coupling to the
lepton and Higgs doublet but does not couple to the gauge bosons. (See
Feynman diagrams in the paper.)
The problem is, that not only am I unable to reproduce the result given
for (2) and (3), but the result I get makes no sense. When I calculate
just the s-channel contribution |M_s|^2, then the result is negative!
With process (1), which occurs only in the t-channel and u-channel,
there is no problem, but for both (2) and (3) which have an s-channel
contribution I get a negative amplitude squared. To make it even
stranger-if I start from (1) and use crossing to obtain the result for
(3), I get the same as the author of the paper does. But still, there
must be something wrong since the direct calculation fails.

My question is now: Is there anything special about these diagrams,
some peculiarity that I most likely have not taken into account? My
supervisor told me some stories that the diagrams might violate the
Ward identity and I should try to add something which he called
"contact terms", but he was unable to explain me properly, what this
means. In the literature, I have not found any example where anything
like that happens. I rather assume it could be connected to the
polarization sums for the gauge bosons which maybe contain something
special here. I used the same formula as for the photons (remember that
the SU(2) gauge bosons are also massless in this case!), maybe this is
wrong? But it works for process (1), this really confuses me...

I hope someone can give me a hint what could be going on here, since it
would be a pity to leave this part out. Few people have considered
these processes and I would like to include their effect in my thesis.

Thanks in advance,
Denis Besak
 
Science news on Phys.org
Is there really no one who could give me a hint? :-(
 
denis.besak@gmx.de wrote:
> When I calculate just the s-channel contribution |M_s|^2, then the
> result is negative![/color]

Can you explain in more detail how do you calculate it?Squark
 

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