Charged Lepton Flavor Violation (CLFV) describes a type of process that is heavily suppressed by the standard model. Measuring such processes at rates higher than those predicted by SM could point to new physics. The Mu2e experiment aims to detect the decay of a muon to an electron without an electron neutrino, which is a CLFV process. Will mu2e or any other similar experiment break the current upper bound on the conversion rate?
This question will resolve as yes on December 31, 2030 if Mu2e or any other similar, reputable experiment measures a conversion rate for neutrinoless muon to electron conversion lower than the currently accepted value, 7 x 10^-13, measured by SINDRUM-II. Note that the conversion rate refers to the rate of neutrinoless muon conversion in the field of a nucleus relative to the rate of muon capture by the nucleus. See arXiv:2003.12678v2 for this definition and other information about Mu2e.
Mar 14, 3:20pm: Will muon to electron conversion be observed by 2030? → Will charged lepton flavor violation via muon to electron conversion be observed by 2030?
@rjgumby I can't really make sense of this: "if Mu2e or any other similar, reputable experiment measures a conversion rate for neutrinoless muon to electron conversion lower than the currently accepted value, 7 x 10^-13, measured by SINDRUM-II". First of all, 7 x 10^-13 isn't the currently accepted value, it's the upper limit. Secondly, why would you require the Mu2e result to be less than that? Potentially, Mu2e could (correctly) measure a value higher than 7 x 10^-13, if the previous experiment either got unlucky or made a mistake.