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Measurement of the energy spectrum of νe from muon decay and implications for the Lorentz structure of the weak interaction

KARMEN group, B. Armbruster, I. M. Blair, B. A. Bodmann, N. E. Booth, G. Drexlin, V. Eberhard, J. A. Edgington, C. Eichner, K. Eitel, E. Finckh, H. Gemmeke, J. Hößl, T. Jannakos, P. Jünger, M. Kleifges, J. Kleinfeller, W. Kretschmer, R. Maschuw, C. Oehler, P. Plischke, J. Rapp, C. Ruf, M. Steidl, O. Stumm, J. Wolf, B. Zeitnitz

hep-exarXiv:hep-ex/9806024

Abstract

The KARMEN experiment uses the reaction 12C(νe,e-)12N to measure the energy distribution of νe emitted in muon decay at rest. The νe analog ωl of the famous Michel parameter ρhas been derived from a maximum-likelihood analysis of events near the kinematic end point, Emax. The result, ωl = (2.7+3.8-3.3 3.1) * 10-2, is in good agreement with the standard model prediction ωl= 0. We deduce a 90% confidence upper limit of ωl <= 0.113, which corresponds to a limit of |gSRL + 2 gTRL| <= 0.78 on the interference term between scalar and tensor coupling constants.

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