The cross section for production of neutrino pairs by high energy muons in the nuclear Coulomb field is calculated analytically. For right (left)-handed μ–(μ+) helicity, the process is only mediated by neutral currents, which opens the possibility to look for the number of generations. Assuming three generations, the calculated cross section turns out to be 1.1×10^–40 cm2 for 56Fe and 6.6×10^–40 cm2 for 208Pb at an incident muon energy of 300 GeV. Some comments about the equivalent photon approximation are made.

The authors acknowledge the financia1 support from the Comisión Asesora de Investigación Científica y Técnica. One of us (A.P.) is indebted to Caja de Ahorros de Valencia for a fellowship.

6 páginas, 3 figuras.

Peer reviewed