Lepton-Number and Chirality Nonconservation in Weak Processes

We propose a description of leptonic and semileptonic weak processes which involves the use of only three distinct lepton field operators ψ_e^-(x), ψ_μ^-(x), and ψ_ν(x) and postulates such an expression for the leptonic weak current l_α^'(ψ_e^-(x),ψ_μ^-(x),ψ_ν(x)) that (1) neither the conservation of total lepton number nor the "conservation of neutrino chirality" holds exactly, and (2) the extent of lepton-number nonconservation and neutrino-chirality nonconservation becomes maximal at high interlepton momentum transfers. As a result, various weak processes forbidden in the conventional description and so far unobserved at relatively small momentum transfers are expected to proceed with non-negligible rates at higher momentum transfers. A discussion is given of certain of these processes and particular attention is focused on the production processes ν_μ+p→e⁺+n, ν_μ+p→e^-+Δ⁺⁺, ν_μ+p→μ⁺+n, and ν_μ+(Z,A)→e^-+μ⁺+ν_μ+(Z,A), and on the decay processes K⁺→μ⁺+e⁺+π^- and μ⁺→e⁺+γ.