- #1
silmaril89
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"Notice that these transformations do not alter the chirality of particles. A left-handed neutrino would be taken by charge conjugation into a left-handed antineutrino, which does not interact in the Standard Model." --https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-symmetry
The excerpt above seems to unambiguously answer this question. But, then:
"You can easily convince yourself (exercise II.1.9) that the charge conjugate of a left handed field is right handed and vice versa." --Quantum Field Theory in a Nutshell, A. Zee
These statements appear to be contradictory. What's going on here?
Also, it does seem easy to convince myself of Zee's comment (following Zee's convention that [itex]\psi \to \psi_c = \gamma^2 \psi^\ast[/itex]):
Suppose [itex]\psi[/itex] is left-handed (i.e. [itex]P_L \psi = \psi[/itex] and [itex]P_R \psi = 0[/itex]), then
[tex]P_L \psi_c = P_L \gamma^2 \psi^\ast = \gamma^2 P_R \psi^\ast = \gamma^2 (P_R \psi)^\ast = 0[/tex]
and
[tex]P_R \psi_c = P_R \gamma^2 \psi^\ast = \gamma^2 P_L \psi^\ast = \gamma^2 (P_L \psi)^\ast = \psi_c[/tex]
Therefore, it appears that Zee's comment is correct. Can anyone help me understand why the two quotes above are or are not in contradiction?
The excerpt above seems to unambiguously answer this question. But, then:
"You can easily convince yourself (exercise II.1.9) that the charge conjugate of a left handed field is right handed and vice versa." --Quantum Field Theory in a Nutshell, A. Zee
These statements appear to be contradictory. What's going on here?
Also, it does seem easy to convince myself of Zee's comment (following Zee's convention that [itex]\psi \to \psi_c = \gamma^2 \psi^\ast[/itex]):
Suppose [itex]\psi[/itex] is left-handed (i.e. [itex]P_L \psi = \psi[/itex] and [itex]P_R \psi = 0[/itex]), then
[tex]P_L \psi_c = P_L \gamma^2 \psi^\ast = \gamma^2 P_R \psi^\ast = \gamma^2 (P_R \psi)^\ast = 0[/tex]
and
[tex]P_R \psi_c = P_R \gamma^2 \psi^\ast = \gamma^2 P_L \psi^\ast = \gamma^2 (P_L \psi)^\ast = \psi_c[/tex]
Therefore, it appears that Zee's comment is correct. Can anyone help me understand why the two quotes above are or are not in contradiction?