Wrong-Helicity Electrons in Radiative Muon Decay

Abstract

We have studied in detail the spectrum of the decay mu^- -> e^- anti-nu_e nu_mu gamma as a function of the electron helicity, and verify the prediction of Sehgal (Phys.Lett. B569, 25 (2003)) that a significant fraction of the electrons in this decay is right-handed. These ``wrong-helicity'' electrons persist in the limit lambda = m_e / m_mu -> 0, and are connected with helicity-flip bremsstrahlung in QED. The longitudinal polarization of the electron is calculated as a function of the photon and electron energy, and deviates systematically from the naive V-A prediction P_L = -1. The right-handed component is concentrated in the collinear region theta <= m_e / E_e. In the limit lambda -> 0, we reproduce the results obtained in (Phys.Lett. B569, 25 (2003)) using the helicity-flip splitting function introduced by Falk and Sehgal.

Comments: 11 pages, 7 figures; v2: shortened version to appear in Phys. Lett. B