What happens when a neutrino and an anti-neutrino interacts together? For example, what does a muon neutrino and anti-muon neutrino produce? it says in my book that it creates "muons and antimuons". But, how? Don't the particle and the antiparticle annihilate when they interact with each other?
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1$\begingroup$ It seems like you're asking two separate questions here. Could you edit this post to only contain one of them, and post the other one separately? $\endgroup$– David ZCommented Jan 8, 2014 at 2:03
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$\begingroup$ @DavidZ Thanks for the advice. Can you try to answer my question, please? $\endgroup$– VaishnaviCommented Jan 8, 2014 at 2:08
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1 Answer
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If you are asking about an interaction between a $\nu_\mu$ and a $\bar{\nu}_\mu$, then they annihilate to a (generally off-shell) $Z^0$-boson and which then decays to some particle/anti-particle pair. The pair may be charged leptons, neutrinos or quarks (assuming there is enough energy to hadronize) so the final outcome could be a lot of different things. $$ \nu_\mu + \bar{\nu}_\mu \to Z^{0*} \to \text{a pair of some kind}\,.$$
This is analogous to the process known as Drell-Yan when the intermediate boson is a photon, only the cross-section is much lower on account of being weak moderated.
answered Jan 8, 2014 at 2:33
dmckee --- ex-moderator kittendmckee --- ex-moderator kitten
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$\begingroup$ Additionally if the neutrino is a Majorana particle then they may vanish to nothing in certain processes. $\endgroup$– jazzwhizCommented Jul 31, 2014 at 18:16
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$\begingroup$ @jazzwhiz Well, yes, but they have to be off-shell in the first place for that. $\endgroup$ Commented Jul 31, 2014 at 18:36