Effective theory tower for $\mu\rightarrow e$ conversion

TL;DR

This paper develops a comprehensive effective field theory framework for predicting muon-to-electron conversion rates, connecting high-energy physics to nuclear interactions with new tensor interactions included.

Contribution

It introduces an extended set of nucleon-level interactions, including tensor types, and provides a nonperturbative matching onto the Weak Effective Theory for accurate rate predictions.

Findings

Inclusion of tensor interactions enhances the theoretical modeling.

Matching procedure connects UV physics to nuclear scales.

Open-source software MuonBridge facilitates calculations.

Abstract

We present theoretical predictions for $\mu \rightarrow e$ conversion rates using a tower of effective field theories connecting the UV to nuclear physics scales. The interactions in nuclei are described using a recently developed nonrelativistic effective theory (NRET) that organizes contributions according to bound nucleon and muon velocities, $\vec{v}_N$ and $\vec{v}_\mu$, with $|\vec{v}_N| > |\vec{v}_\mu|$. To facilitate the top-down matching, we enlarge the set of Lorentz covariant nucleon-level interactions mapped onto the NRET operators to include those mediated by tensor interactions, in addition to the scalar and vector interactions already considered previously, and then match NRET nonperturbatively onto the Weak Effective Theory (WET). At the scale $\mu \approx 2$ GeV WET is formulated in terms of $u$, $d$, $s$ quarks, gluons and photons as the light degrees of freedom, along with the flavor-violating leptonic current. We retain contributions from WET operators up to dimension 7, which requires the full set of 26 NRET operators. The results are encoded in the open-source Python- and Mathematica-based software suite MuonBridge, which we make available to the theoretical and experimental communities interested in $\mu \rightarrow e$ conversion.