Abstract

We study the nuclear ? - e- conversion in the general framework of the effective Lagrangian approach without referring to any specific realization of the physics beyond the standard model (SM) responsible for lepton flavor violation (LFV). We analyze the role of scalar meson exchange between the lepton and nucleon currents and show its relevance for the coherent channel of ? - e-conversion. We show that this mechanism introduces modifications in the predicted ? - e- conversion rates in comparison with the conventional direct nucleon mechanism, based on the contact type interactions of the nucleon currents with the LFV leptonic current. We derive from the experimental data lower limits on the mass scales of the generic LFV lepton-quark contact terms and demonstrate that they are more stringent than the similar limits existing in the literature. © 2005 The American Physical Society.