Gauge and infrared properties of hadronic structure of nucleon in neutron beta decay to order O(α/π) in standard V − A effective theory with QED and linear sigma model of strong low-energy interactions

Within the standard [Formula: see text] theory of weak interactions, Quantum Electrodynamics (QED) and the linear [Formula: see text]-model [Formula: see text] of strong low-energy hadronic interactions we analyze gauge and infrared properties of hadronic structure of the neutron and proton in the neutron [Formula: see text]-decay to leading order in the large nucleon mass expansion. We show that the complete set of Feynman diagrams describing radiative corrections of order [Formula: see text], induced by hadronic structure of the nucleon, to the rate of the neutron [Formula: see text]-decay is gauge noninvariant and unrenormalizable. We show that a gauge noninvariant contribution does not depend on the electron energy in agreement with Sirlin’s analysis of contributions of strong low-energy interactions (Phys. Rev. 164, 1767 (1967)). We show that infrared divergent and dependent on the electron energy contributions from the neutron radiative [Formula: see text]-decay and neutron [Formula: see text]-decay, caused by hadronic structure of the nucleon, are canceled in the neutron lifetime. Nevertheless, we find that divergent contributions of virtual photon exchanges to the neutron lifetime, induced by hadronic structure of the nucleon, are unrenormalizable even formally. Such an unrenormalizability can be explained by the fact that the effective [Formula: see text] vertex of hadron–lepton current–current interactions is not a vertex of the combined quantum field theory including QED and [Formula: see text], which are renormalizable theories. We assert that for a consistent gauge invariant and renormalizable analysis of contributions of hadronic structure of the nucleon to the radiative corrections of any order to the neutron decays one has to use a gauge invariant and fully renormalizable quantum field theory including the Standard Electroweak Model (SEM) and the [Formula: see text], where the effective [Formula: see text] vertex of hadron–lepton current–current interactions is caused by the [Formula: see text]-electroweak-boson exchange.

Generation of the relic neutrino asymmetry in a hot plasma of the early universe

The neutrino asymmetry in the early universe plasma, [Formula: see text], is calculated both before and after the electroweak phase transition (EWPT). In the Standard Model, before EWPT, the leptogenesis is well known to be driven by the abelian anomaly in a massless hypercharge field. The generation of the neutrino asymmetry in the Higgs phase after EWPT, in its turn, has not been considered previously because of the absence of any quantum anomaly in an external electromagnetic field for such electroneutral particles as neutrino, unlike the Adler–Bell–Jackiw anomaly for charged left and right polarized massless electrons in the same electromagnetic field. Using the neutrino Boltzmann equation, modified by the Berry curvature term in the momentum space, we establish the violation of the macroscopic neutrino current in plasma after EWPT and exactly reproduce the nonconservation of the lepton current in the symmetric phase before EWPT arising in quantum field theory due to the nonzero lepton hypercharge and corresponding triangle anomaly in an external hypercharge field. In the last case, the nonconservation of the lepton current is derived through the kinetic approach without a computation of corresponding Feynman diagrams. Then, the new kinetic equation is applied for the calculation of the neutrino asymmetry accounting for the Berry curvature and the electroweak interaction with background fermions in the Higgs phase. Such an interaction generates a neutrino asymmetry through the electroweak coupling of neutrino currents with electromagnetic fields in plasma, which is [Formula: see text]. It turns out that this effect is especially efficient for maximally helical magnetic fields.

DIFFRACTIVE INTERACTION OF NEUTRINOS

Interactions of high-energy neutrinos expose hadronic properties, in particular, contain a strong diffractive channel. The Adler relation (AR) between soft interactions of neutrinos and pions, might look as a manifestation of pion dominance. However, neutrinos cannot fluctuate to pions because of conservation of the lepton current, and interact via much heavier hadronic components. This fact leads to nontrivial relations between interactions of different hadronic species, in particular, it links diagonal and off-diagonal diffractive interactions of pions. Absorptive corrections break these relations making the AR impossible to hold universally, for any target and at any energy.

TOPOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF CHIRAL ANOMALY, ORIGIN OF MASS AND ELECTROWEAK THEORY

It is here shown that the topological property of a fermion which gives rise to the fermion number and is related to chiral anomaly may be taken to lead to weak interaction gauge bosons when currents are written in chiral form. The gauge bosons attain mass topologically through the generation of internal helicities and thus no Higgs scalar is needed to have spontaneous symmetry breaking. Moreover the group structure SU(2)×U(1) is inbuilt here for electroweak unification. The Weinberg angle gets a physical meaning and strangeness changing neutral lepton current interaction is automatically forbidden. This formalism also suggests that at very high temperature, weak interaction will be of long range in nature.