Consequences of Neutrino Lorentz Violation For Leptonic Meson Decays

TL;DR

This paper explores how potential superluminal neutrinos, suggested by OPERA results, could cause Lorentz violation in leptonic meson decays, affecting pion decay rates as an independent test.

Contribution

It calculates the impact of neutrino Lorentz violation on charged pion decay rates, providing a new experimental observable for testing superluminal neutrino hypotheses.

Findings

Decay rate decreases proportionally to neutrino speed deviation

Provides an independent method to test Lorentz violation

Connects neutrino speed anomalies with meson decay processes

Abstract

If the observation by OPERA of apparently superluminal neutrinos is correct, the Lagrangian for second-generation leptons must break Lorentz invariance. We calculate the effects of an energy-independent change in the neutrino speed on another observable, the charged pion decay rate. The rate decreases by an factor [1 - 3/(1 - (m_mu)^2 / (m_pi) ^ 2) (< v_(nu) > - 1)], where < v_(nu) > is the (directionally averaged) neutrino speed in the pion's rest frame. This provides a completely independent experimental observable that is sensitive to the same forms of Lorentz violation as a neutrino time of flight measurement.