Are right-handed chiral particles usually more stable than left-handed because right-handed particles can't decay using W⁺/W⁻? For example, left-handed muons apparently decay most of the time in such a way that there is a virtual particle W⁻ involved, at least according to this Wikipedia article. Since right-handed muons can't decay this way, do they have longer lifetime?
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2$\begingroup$ Is there such a thing as a "right-handed chiral particle"? Even if there aren't any interactions that can change the chirality of a particular particle, there's nothing preventing every physical particle from being a superposition of the chirality eigenstates. $\endgroup$– probably_someoneCommented Nov 15, 2019 at 13:00
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1$\begingroup$ Linked. $\endgroup$– Cosmas ZachosCommented Nov 15, 2019 at 21:07
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Indeed, narrowly speaking, right-chiral muons are stable as they don't decay through the charged weak current (the $W^-$ you mention). The electrons left-chiral muons decay to are also left chiral, a substantially useful handle in the calculation of muon decay rates.
The reason your question is so puzzling, bordering on insignificance, is because left- and right-chiral muons (massive fermions in general), by dint of being massive, interconvert ferociously into each other as they propagate. In that sense, right-chiral muons are as unstable as they go.
Even their +/- helicity flips proportionately to their mass, then, a fact of major utility in charged pion decay, going through a W.
answered Nov 15, 2019 at 20:52
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$\begingroup$ Indeed I forgot that a physical muon is a superposition of the two chiral eigenstates. $\endgroup$– KirbyCommented Nov 16, 2019 at 9:06