Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-particle-physics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2017/1/e/solution
Past exam of the particle physics course of the University of Oxford 2017 1 e Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-25
The charged weak current contains . For an ultrarelativistic external fermion, it selects negative helicity; its antifermion partner has positive helicity. Wrong-helicity charged-current amplitudes vanish in the massless limit and are suppressed by powers of at finite mass. The active neutrino is consequently left-helicity and its antineutrino right-helicity in this limit.
This is a charged-current statement, not a prohibition on every right-helicity Standard Model fermion. Electromagnetic and strong vector interactions act on both chiralities and conserve helicity along a massless fermion line. A neutral-current vertex also couples to both charged-fermion chiralities with unequal strengths. For example, a right-helicity electron can scatter electromagnetically: it is not excluded from the Standard Model. In vector-current pair annihilation the massless fermion and antifermion have opposite helicities; a purely charged-current vertex keeps only the left-fermion/right-antifermion choice. Yukawa interactions connect left and right fields and must be distinguished from these vector-current selection rules.
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