Particle Physics – Where Are the Right-Handed Leptons?

chiralityparticle-physicsquantum-field-theorystandard-modelweak-interaction

So the weak force only works on left-handed leptons and quarks. Does this mean there are no right-handed leptons and quarks?

If there are, why don't we see an abundance of right-handed particles that do not decay? If there are no right handed leptons and quarks, why not?

Best Answer

There are right handed quarks and leptons, they just don't interact weakly. The matter content of the Standard Model is often written in the "QUDLE" form as:

$$\begin{array} {} & SU(3)_C & SU(2)_L & U(1)_Y & U(1)_Q \\ \hline q_L^i = \begin{pmatrix} u_L^i \\ d_L^i \end{pmatrix} & 3 & 2 & 1/6 & \begin{pmatrix} \frac{2}{3} \\ -\frac{1}{3} \end{pmatrix} \\ \hline u_R^i & 3 & 1 & 2/3 & 2/3\\ \hline d_R^i & 3 & 1 & -1/3 & -1/3 \\ \hline l_L^i = \begin{pmatrix} \nu^i_L \\ e^i_L \end{pmatrix} & 1 & 2 & -1/2 & \begin{pmatrix} 0 \\ -1 \end{pmatrix} \\ \hline e_R^i & 1 & 1 & -1 & -1\\ \hline \phi & 1 & 2 & 1/2 & \begin{pmatrix} - \\ 0 \end{pmatrix} \\ \hline \end{array}$$

where it is understood that the Standard Model is a gauge theory with gauge group $SU(3) \times SU(2) \times U(1)_Y$ that gets spontaneously broken to $SU(3) \times U(1)_Q$. In particular, when people say that only left-handed quarks/leptons participate in weak force, they are talking about the fact that the up/down type left-handed quarks, as well as the left-handed leptons transform as the '2' representation under $SU(2)$, whereas the right-handed counterparts transform under the '1' (singlet) representation. This means that in the broken theory, the $W^\pm$ bosons which mediate decays don't interact with the right-handed quarks and leptons. (Note that the right-handed quarks and leptons still interact with Z bosons though, due to their $U(1)_Y$ charge)

The right handed quarks and leptons exist though. Note that after spontaneous symmetry breaking, the quarks and leptons gain mass terms that look like $m_u (\bar{u}_L u_R + \bar{u}_R u_L)$ (I am ignoring all the issues about flavor basis/mass basis not being same), these mass terms 'mix' the left and right handed modes, in the sense that you can't really treat them as separate.

In the table above, I also omit the neutrinos. Years ago, I believe people thought they could potentially be massless, and thus there could truly be no right-handed neutrinos. However, we have come to find out via experiment that neutrinos are massive, hence the simplest explanation would be that right-handed neutrinos do exist. I haven't included this in the table because

  1. I think theres still many open questions about neutrinos
  2. I don't know much about neutrinos personally, if anyone wants to come fix this answer feel free
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