Right handed neutrino identity

Click For Summary

Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the treatment of right-handed neutrinos within the context of the Electroweak Standard Model, specifically focusing on expressions involving Majorana neutrinos. Participants explore the mathematical properties of fermionic fields and the implications of these properties for proving certain identities related to neutrino fields.

Discussion Character

  • Technical explanation
  • Mathematical reasoning

Main Points Raised

  • One participant references a specific expression from Mohapatra's book regarding right-handed neutrinos and seeks to prove it, encountering difficulties with a particular mathematical manipulation.
  • Another participant confirms the correctness of the initial expression and suggests performing an explicit calculation with a two-component spinor to clarify the issue.
  • A subsequent reply raises concerns about the implications of anticommuting properties of fermionic fields and questions why the conjugate of a specific expression remains unchanged.
  • Another participant proposes a conceptual approach involving Majorana mass terms and suggests that the properties of the fields can be leveraged to understand the conjugation issue better.
  • The original poster expresses gratitude after resolving their confusion regarding the treatment of Majorana fermions and their helicities, indicating progress in understanding the topic.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants generally engage in a constructive dialogue, with some agreement on the correctness of the expressions discussed. However, there remains a lack of consensus on the justification for the mathematical manipulations involving conjugates and anticommuting properties.

Contextual Notes

The discussion includes assumptions about the nature of Majorana neutrinos and the properties of fermionic fields, which are not fully resolved. The mathematical steps involved in the manipulations are also not completely detailed, leaving some aspects open to interpretation.

lalo_u
Gold Member
Messages
26
Reaction score
0
I am reading Mohapatra's book: "Massive Neutrinos in Physics and Astrophysics". At the beginning of chapter 7, it is sought expressions where the right neutrino was considered in the Electroweak Standard Model.
Everything was fine until I found the expression \overline{N^c_{l'L}}\nu^c_{lR}=\overline{\nu_{lL}}N_{l'R}.
Where N_{l'R} is the right handed field associated with right handed neutrinos and the subsctipts l,l' indicate the lepton flavors.

Well, I'm trying to prove this, but I get stuck on the following expression:

\overline{N^c_{l&#039;L}}\nu^c_{lR} =\overline{\left(N_{l&#039;L}\right)^c}\left(\nu_{lR}\right)^c<br /> = \overline{N_{l&#039;R}}\nu_{lL}¿?\overline{\nu_{lL}}N_{l&#039;R}
And I'm assuming that they are Majorana neutrinos.

To complete the test I should justify why the conjugate for the last expression can be taken and remain unchanged, someone could help?
 
Last edited:
Physics news on Phys.org
It seems what you have wriiten is correct.Those fermionic fields have anticommuting properties.Try to do an explicit calculation with a two component spinor.
 
OK Andrien, but if i only take an anticommuting propetry, the fields change places (wih some minus sign). The question is why i can take the conjugate for the last expression and remains tha same...
 
just think about if NlR is the right handed neutrino(vlR),then majorana mass term will look like vR-vl or equivalently you can write because majorana mass term will have only left handed and express the right handed part by a charge conjugation.So it will look like vl-cvl and then you can write it something like xTεx(because of realness of majorana spinor,x denotes the two component spinors),so if you take the conjugate of the expression.It is same.you can extend this argument or if you want to verify then you can take a two component spinor like (x1 x2) and notice the anticommuting property of grassmann variable along with the relation of dirac conjugate to hermitian conjugate to obtain the result.
 
  • Like
Likes   Reactions: 1 person
I got it, Andrien. I had shown only for the full Majorana fermion, and not for any of their helicities that was what I wanted. I considered its components, as you suggested, and I did.

Thank you.
 

Similar threads

Replies
1
Views
2K
  • · Replies 2 ·
Replies
2
Views
2K
Replies
4
Views
2K
  • · Replies 8 ·
Replies
8
Views
4K
  • · Replies 1 ·
Replies
1
Views
2K
  • · Replies 1 ·
Replies
1
Views
2K
  • · Replies 6 ·
Replies
6
Views
4K
  • · Replies 4 ·
Replies
4
Views
2K
  • · Replies 9 ·
Replies
9
Views
2K
  • · Replies 1 ·
Replies
1
Views
3K