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Symmetries in particle physics

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Discrete symmetries:<br />

Parity<br />

Helicity, chirality, and all that<br />

In the Standard Model:<br />

ALL NEUTRINOS ARE LEFT-HANDED<br />

This can be seen by consider<strong>in</strong>g pion decays <strong>in</strong>to<br />

muon + ant<strong>in</strong>eutr<strong>in</strong>o. In the rest frame of the pion,<br />

the muon and neutr<strong>in</strong>o come out back-to-back and<br />

the sp<strong>in</strong>s have to add to 0 (s<strong>in</strong>ce the pion has<br />

sp<strong>in</strong>-0). Therefore, the handedness (sp<strong>in</strong>-direction) of<br />

the anti-neutr<strong>in</strong>o equals the handedness of the muon.<br />

In this experiment, up to now, muons with only one<br />

helicity/handedness have been found.

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