Muon production in low-energy electron-nucleon and electron-nucleus scattering

Journal article, 2007

Recently, muon production in electron-proton scattering has been suggested as a possible candidate reaction for the identification of lepton-flavor violation due to physics beyond the standard model. Here we point out that the standard-model processes e(-)p ->mu(-)p (nu) over bar (mu)nu(e) and e(-)p -> e(-)n mu(+)nu(mu) can cloud potential beyond-the-standard-model signals in ep collisions. We find that standard-model ep ->mu X cross sections exceed those from lepton-flavor-violating operators by several orders of magnitude. We also discuss the possibility of using a nuclear target to enhance the ep ->mu X signal.