THREE TYPES OF FERMION MIXING AND POSSIBLE MANIFESTATIONS OF A PATI--SALAM LEPTOQUARK IN THE LOW--ENERGY PROCESSES

I report the recent studies\cite{1,2} on the low--energy manifestations of a minimal extension of the Standard Model based on the quark-lepton symmetry $SU(4)_V \otimes SU(2)_L \otimes G_R$ of the Pati-Salam type. Given this symmetry the third type of mixing in the interactions ot the $SU(4)_V$ leptoquarks with quarks and leptons is shown to be required. An additional arbitrariness of the mixing parameters could allow, in principle, to decrease noticeably the lower bound on the vector leptoquark mass originated from the low-energy rare processes. The decays $\mu \rightarrow e \gamma$, $\mu \rightarrow e \gamma \gamma$, and $\mu \rightarrow e e \bar e$ via the vector leptoquark are analysed and the specific hierarchy of the decay probabilities $\Gamma(\mu \rightarrow e e \bar e) \gg \Gamma(\mu \rightarrow e \gamma \gamma) \gg \Gamma(\mu \rightarrow e \gamma)$ is shown to exist. The upper limits on the branching ratios at a level of $10^{-18}$ for the $\mu \rightarrow e \gamma \gamma$ decay and at a level of $10^{-15}$ for the $\mu \rightarrow e e \bar e$ decay are established.