862 Brazilian Journal of Physics, vol. 34, no.

3A, September, 2004

A Formalism for Weak Interactions in Nuclei
A. Samana, F. Krmpoti c,
Instituto de Fsica, Universidade de S ao Paulo C. P. 66318, 05315-970 S ao Paulo, SP, Brazil
and A. Mariano
Departamento de Fsica, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Universidad Nacional de La Plata, La Plata, 1900, Argentina
Received on 03 October, 2003
The neutrino-nucleus cross-section and the muon capture rate are discussed within a simple formalism which
facilitates the nuclear structure calculations. The corresponding formulae only depend on four types of nuclear
matrix elements, which are currently used in the nuclear beta decay. We have also considered the non-locality
effects arising from the velocity-dependent terms in the hadronic current. We show that for both observables
in
12
C the higher order relativistic corrections are of the order of 4% only, and therefore do not play a
signicant role.
The semileptonic weak interactions with nuclei include a
rich variety of processes, such as the neutrino (antineutrino)
scattering, charged lepton capture, e

decays, etc, and we

have at our disposal the results of more than a half-century
of beautiful experimental and theoretical work. At the time
being their study is mainly aimed to inquire on possible ex-
otic properties of the neutrino associated with its oscillations
and massiveness by means of exclusive and inclusive scat-
tering processes on nuclei, which are often used as neutrino
detectors. An example is given by the recent experiments
performed by both the LSND and the KARMEN Collabora-
tions, looking for

e
and

e
oscillations with
neutrinos produced by accelerators [1, 2]. Thus the knowl-
edge of reactions induced by neutrinos on nuclei becomes
a crucial step for the interpretation of experiments on neu-
trinos, and a reliable prediction of these cross sections is
a challenging problem from the nuclear structure point of
view.
The weak interaction formalism most frequently used in
the literature is that of Walecka [3], where, in close anal-
ogy with the electromagnetic transitions, the nuclear op-
erators are classied into Coulomb (/), longitudinal (L),
transverse electric (T
el
) and transverse magnetic (T
mag
).
We carry out a different multipole expansion of the V A
hadronic current and express all observables in terms of the
vector (V ) and axial vector (A) nuclear matrix elements.
The weak Hamiltonian is expressed in the form [4]
H
W
(r) =
G

2
J

(r) +h.c., (1)

where
J

=
0
_
g
V

+
g
M
2M
i

g
A

5
+
g
P
m

5
_
,
(2)
is the hadronic current operator, and
L

(r) = u
s

(p, E

(1
5
)u
s

(q, E

)e
irk
(3)
is the plane waves approximation for the matrix element of
the leptonic current; G = (3.04545 0.00006)10
12
is
the Fermi coupling constant (in natural units),
k = P
i
P
f
k
0
, k (4)
is the momentum transfer (P
i
and P
f
are momenta of the
initial and nal nucleon (nucleus), M is the nucleon mass,
m

is the mass of the charged lepton, and g

V
, g
A
, g
M
and g
P
are, respectively, the vector, axial-vector, weak-
magnetism and pseudoscalar effective dimensionless cou-
pling constants. Their numerical values are
g
V
= 1; g
A
= 1.26;
g
M
=
p

n
= 3.70; g
P
= g
A
2Mm

k
2
+m
2

. (5)
The nite nucleon size (FNS) effect is incorporated via the
dipole form factor with a cutoff = 850 MeV, i.e., as:
g g
_

2

2
+k
2
_
2
.
To use (1) with the non-relativistic nuclear wave func-
tions, the Foldy-Wouthuysen transformation has to be per-
formed on the hadronic current (2). When the velocity de-
pendent terms are included this yields
1
:
J
0
= g
V
+ (g
A
+g
P1
)

k
g
A
M
p
J = g
A
ig
W

k g
V

k +g
P2
(

k)

k +
g
V
M
p,
(6)
1
There is a misprint in eq.(5) of Ref.[5].
A. Samana, F. Krmpoti c, and A. Mariano 863
where the operator p iacts on the nuclear wave func-
tions, and the following short notation has been introduced:
g
V
= g
V
[k[
2M
; g
A
= g
A
[k[
2M
; g
W
= (g
V
+g
M
)
[k[
2M
,
g
P1
= g
P
[k[
2M
k
0
m

; g
P2
= g
P
[k[
2M
[k[
m

. (7)
For the neutrino-nucleus reaction k = p

, with
p

, p

and q

, q

, and the correspond-

ing cross section from the initial state [J
i
) to the nal state
[J
f
) reads
(E

, J
f
) =
[p

[E

2
F(Z + 1, E

)
_
1
1
d(cos )T

([k[, J
f
),
(8)
where F(Z +1, E

) is the Fermi function, q

, and
T

([k[, J
f
)
1
2J
i
+ 1

,s

,M
i
,M
f

_
dr

f
(r)H
W
(r)
i
(r)

2
,
with
i
(r) r[J
i
M
i
) and
f
(r) r[J
f
M
f
) being the
nuclear wave functions.
The transition amplitude can be cast in the form:
T

([k[, J
f
) = G
2

J
_
L
4
_
g
2
V
[/
V
(J)[
2
+ [(g
A
+g
P1
)/
0
A
(J) +g
A
/
A
(J)[
2

+L
0
_
'
__
g
V
/
V
(J) + 2g
V
/
0
V
(J)
_
g
V
/

V
(J)

+
_
g
2
P2
2g
A
g
P2
_
[/
0
A
(J)[
2

=0,1
L

(g
A
g
W
)/

A
(J) g
V
/

V
(J)

2
+2L
40
'
_
g
V
_
g
V
/
V
(J) +g
V
/
0
V
(J)
_
/

V
(J)
+(g
A
g
P2
)
_
(g
A
+g
P1
)/
0
A
(J)
+ g
A
/
A
(J)) /
0
A
(J)
_
,
(9)
where the lepton traces L
4
, L
40
and L
=1,0,1
are dened
in Ref.[5] , and the nuclear matrix elements
/
V
(J) =
(1)
J

2J
i
+ 1
J
f
[[Y
J
([k[)[[J
i
),
/

A
(J) =
1

2J
i
+ 1

2L + 1
_
L 1 J
0
_
J
f
[[S
JL
([k[, )[[J
i
),
/
A
(J) =
(1)
J

2J
i
+ 1
J
f
[[Y
J
([k[, p)[[J
i
),
/

V
(J) =
1

2J
i
+ 1

2L + 1
_
L 1 J
0
_
J
f
[[P
JL
([k[, p)[[J
i
),
(10)
contain the operators :
Y
JM
([k[) =

4i
J
j
J
([k[r)Y
JM
(r)
S
JLM
([k[, ) =

4j
L
([k[r)i
L
[Y
L
(r) ]
JM
P
LJM
([k[, p) =
1
M

4i
L
j
L
([k[r)[Y
L
(r) p]
JM
,
Y
JM
([k[, p) =
1
M

4i
J
j
J
([k[r)Y
JM
(r)( p).
(11)
Similarly, for the capture rate one gets [5]
(J
f
) =
E
2

2
[
1S
[
2
T

(J
f
), (12)
where
1S
is the muonic bound state wave function evalu-
ated at the origin, and
T

(J
f
) = G
2

J
_

G
V
/
V
(J) +g
V
/
0
V
(J)

2
+

G
A0
/
0
A
(J) g
A
/
A
(J)

2
+ 2

G
A1
/
1
A
(J) g
V
/
1
V
(J)

2
_
, (13)
where the effective charges are
G
A0
= g
A
g
A
+g
P
, G
V
= g
V
+g
V
,
G
A1
= g
A
g
W
. (14)
and the coupling constants are now
g
V
= g
V
E

2M
; g
A
= g
A
E

2M
;
g
W
= (g
V
+g
M
)
E

2M
; g
P
= g
P2
g
P1
= g
P
E

2M
.
As an application, we have evaluate the contribution of
the non-locality effects, arising from the velocity-dependent
terms in the hadronic current, in weak processes with
neutrinos and muons within the triad
12
B,
12
C,
12
N.
The numerical calculations were performed within the par-
ticle number projection charge-exchange RPA (PQRPA)
[6], by employing the same conguration space (nl =
(1s, 1p, 1d, 2s, 1f, 2p)) and the same residual force (V =
4 (v
s
P
s
+v
t
P
t
) (r)) as in Ref.[5]. We also use the
same parameterization as in this work for the coupling
strengths within the particle-particle (pp) and particle-hole
(ph) channels: v
ph
s
= v
pair
s
= 23.92 MeV-fm
3
, and v
ph
t
=
v
ph
s
/0.6 = 39.86 MeV-fm
3
.
In the Table I are given the results for inclusive folded
ux-averaged neutrino scattering cross sections

(J
f
)) =
_
dE

(E

= E
i
E
f
E

, J
f
)

f(E

), (15)
with = e

, and where

f(E

) is the normalized neu-

trino ux.
We have presented a somewhat new formalism for the
neutrino-nucleus cross-section and the muon capture rate,
864 Brazilian Journal of Physics, vol. 34, no. 3A, September, 2004
based on a multipole expansion of the V A hadronic cur-
rent in terms of the transition operators (13), which are cur-
rently used in the beta decay. The resulting formulae are
more simpler than those developed by Walecka [3] and as
such facilitate the nuclear structure calculations. We have
also considered the non-locality effects arising from the
velocity-dependent terms in the hadronic current. We show
that for both observables in
12
C the higher order relativistic
corrections are of the order of 4% only, and therefore do
not play a very signicant role.
TABLE 1. Partial contributions to the inclusive folded ux-
averaged cross section
e
(
12
C,
12
N)e

(10
42
cm
2
), in-
clusive

(
12
C,
12
N)

(10
40
cm
2
) and inclusive muon
capture (10
3
s
1
). In parenthesis are showed the results ob-
tained in Ref. [5], which do not include the velocity depen-
dent terms.
Processes PQRPA (I)

e
(
12
C,
12
N)e

21.7 (21.6)

(
12
C,
12
N)

14.7 (14.6)

(
12
B,
12
C)

48.1 (46.0)
References
[1] LSND Collaboration, C. Athanassopulus et al. , Phys. Rev.
C58, 2489 (1998).
[2] KARMEN Collaboration, K. Eitel et al. , Nucl. Phys. B,
Proc.Suppl. 77, 212 (1999).
[3] J.D. Walecka, Muon Physics, ed. V.M. Hughes and C.S Wu
(Academis, New York, 1975).
[4] C. Barbero, F. Krmpoti c, and D. Tadi c, Nucl. Phys. A628,
170 (1998); C. Barbero, F. Krmpoti c, A. Mariano and D.
Tadi c, Nucl. Phys. A650, 485 (1999).
[5] F. Krmpoti c, A. Mariano and A. Samana, Phys.Lett. B541,
298 (2002).
[6] F. Krmpoti c, A. Mariano, T.T.S. Kuo, and K. Nakayama,
Phys. Lett. B319, 393 (1993).