Polarization-asymmetry correlation in allowed beta -decay: a probe for right-handed currents

Abstract

The sensitivity of polarization-asymmetry correlation experiments to charged currents of right-handed chirality contributing to allowed beta -decay is considered in the most general context possible, independently of any type of approximation or of any specific model for physics beyond the standard model of the electroweak interactions. Results are then particularized to general left-right symmetric models, and experimental prospects offered by mirror nuclei are assessed explicitly on general grounds. In order of decreasing interest, the cases of ¹⁷F, ⁴¹Sc and ²⁵Al are the most attractive, providing sensitivities better or comparable to allowed pure Gamow-Teller transitions, with the advantage, however, that recoil order corrections are smaller in the case of super-allowed decays.