The mass term of a fermion mixes the left- and right-handed chiral states, and in the limit that the mass goes to zero, the chiralities no longer mix at all and can be treated independently.
L=(¯ψR¯ψL)(−miσμ∂μi¯σμ∂μ−m)(ψLψR)
What I wish to consider is density of the chiral asymmetry, n5:=nR−nL. This quantity should be well defined in the massless limit as the left- and right-handed components are independent; however, I'm wondering whether one can define this if a mass term does exist.
If it can be defined, then how does this asymmetry evolve in time? Specifically, I wish to compute
dn5dt
in the context of cosmology. I would naively expect that when T≫m, then ˙n5→0 as the fermions are effectively massless compared to their energies, but I do not know how to compute this rate, nor was I able to find much literature on this.
So in all:
- Is it valid to consider this chiral asymmetry density for a massive fermion? And if so,
- How does this chiral asymmetry density evolve in the context of cosmology?