The present status of some selected topics on tau physics is presented: charged-current universality tests, bounds on lepton-flavour violation, the determination of alpha_s from the inclusive tau hadronic width, the measurement of |V_{us}| through the Cabibbo-suppressed decays of the tau, and the theoretical description of the "tau -> nu_tau K pi" spectrum.
Precise measurements of the tau lepton properties provide stringent tests of the Standard Model structure and accurate determinations of its parameters. We overview the present status of a few selected topics: lepton universality, QCD tests and the determination of alpha_s, m_s and V_us from hadronic tau decays, and lepton flavor violation phenomena.
The pure leptonic or semileptonic character of tau decays makes them a good laboratory to test the structure of the weak currents and the universality of their couplings to the gauge bosons. The hadronic tau decay modes constitute an ideal tool for studying low-energy effects of the strong interactions in very clean conditions; a well-known example is the precise determination of the QCD coupling from tau-decay data. New physics phenomena, such as a non-zero tau-neutrino mass or violations of (flavour / CP) conservation laws can also be searched for with tau decays.
We review the state-of-the-art theoretical analyses of tau decays into a pair of mesons and a neutrino. The participant vector and scalar form factors, $f_{+}(s)$ and $f_{0}(s)$, are described in the frame of Chiral Perturbation Theory with resonances supplemented by dispersion relations, and the physical parameters of the intermediate resonances produced in the decay are extracted through the pole position of $f_{+,0}(s)$ in the complex plane. As a side result, we also determine the low-energy observables associated to the form factors. We hope our study to be of interest for present and futu…
Exclusive hadronic decays of the tau lepton provide an excellent framework to study the hadronization of QCD currents in a non-perturbative energy region populated by many resonances. I give a short review both on the main theoretical tools employed to analyse experimental data and on how Theory compares with Experiment.
The Tau-Charm Factory combines the optimum conditions to perform a high-precision investigation of the $τ$ and $ν_τ$ leptons, the $c$ quark, and light-quark, glueball and hybrid spectroscopy. An overview of the broad physics program that this facility will address is presented.
In these proceedings we give a concise review of some selected flavour-violation processes and their implications for two-Higgs-doublet models (2HDMs) and the MSSM. The processes under investigation are $ΔF=2$ processes, $B_s\toμ^+μ^-$, $b\to sγ$, and tauonic $B$ decays. For each process we show the impact on the models.
This Fifth International WEIN Symposium is devoted to physics beyond the standard model. This talk is about tau lepton physics, but I begin with the question: do we know how to find new physics in the world of elementary particles? This question is interwoven with the various tau physics topics. These topics are: searching for unexpected tau decay modes; searching for additional tau decay mechanisms; radiative tau decays; tau decay modes of the W, B, and D; decay of the Z^0 to tau pairs; searching for CP violation in tau decay; the tau neutrino, dreams and odd ideas in tau physics; and tau res…
The prospects for tau physics at future high-luminosity facilities are briefly discussed. Although important (and often complementary) contributions will be made from other machines, the unique experimental environment near threshold makes the Tau-Charm Factory the best experimental tool for $τ$ physics.
Some important aspects of hadronic tau decays are reviewed: the determination of alpha_s from the inclusive tau hadronic width, the measurement of |V_{us}| through the Cabibbo-suppressed decays of the tau, and the theoretical description of the tau -> nu_tau K pi spectrum. The present status of other relevant electroweak topics, such as charged-current universality tests or bounds on lepton-flavour violation, has been already summarized in a previous review.
The leptonic decays of the tau lepton provide relevant tests on the structure of the weak currents and the universality of their couplings to the gauge bosons. The hadronic tau decay modes constitute an ideal tool for studying low--energy effects of the strong interaction in very clean conditions. Accurate determinations of the QCD coupling and the strange quark mass have been obtained with tau decay data. New physics phenomena, such as a non-zero tau neutrino mass or violations of conservation laws can also be searched for with tau decays.
Because of their narrow width, tau decays can be well separated from their production process. Only spin degrees of freedom connect these two parts of the physics process of interest for high energy collision experiments. In the following, we present a Monte Carlo algorithm which is based on that property. The interface supplements events generated by other programs, with tau decays. Effects of spin, genuine weak corrections or of new physics may be taken into account at the time when a tau decay is generated and written into an event record.
We study effects of unparticle physics on muon g-2 and LFV tau decay processes. LFV interactions between the Standard Model sector and unparticles can explain the difference of experimental value of muon g-2 from the Standard Model prediction. While the same couplings generate LFV tau decay, we found that LFV coupling can be of O(0.1 ... 1) without conflict with experimental bounds of LFV tau decay if the scaling dimension of unparticle operator d_{U} > 1.6.
The charm physics program accessible to a Tau-Charm Factory is summarized. Semileptonic, leptonic, hadronic, rare and forbidden charm decay modes are discussed, as well as \dmix\ mixing and CP violation in the charm sector. The theoretical expectations in the Standard Model and beyond as well as the experimental capabilities of a Tau-Charm Factory are examined for each of the above processes. {To appear in {\it The Tau-Charm Factory in the Era of B-Factories and CESR}, Stanford, CA, August 15-16, 1994}
A complete discussion of the constraints on the Michel parameters and the ambiguities of their interpretation is presented. Estimators of new physics, optimized for a very wide class of hypotheses and models, are proposed.
The pure leptonic or semileptonic character of tau decays makes them a good laboratory to test the structure of the weak currents and the universality of their couplings to the gauge bosons. The hadronic $τ$ decay modes constitute an ideal tool for studying low--energy effects of the strong interactions in very clean conditions. New physics phenomena, such as a non-zero $m_{ν_τ}$ or violations of conservation laws can also be searched for with tau decays. The present experimental and theoretical status of tau physics is summarized.
Motivated by the strong experimental evidence of large nu_mu - nu_tau neutrino oscillations, we study existing constraints for related mu - tau flavor violation. Using a general bottom-up approach, we construct dimension-6 effective fermionic operators whose coefficients encode the scale of new physics associated with mu - tau flavor violation, which is a piece in the puzzle of the origin of neutrino oscillations. We survey existing experimental bounds on this scale, which arise mostly from tau and B decays. In many cases the new physics scale is constrained to be above a few TeV. We also disc…
The very high statistics, low backgrounds and clean back-to-back kinematics of a TeraZ facility would provide an optimal laboratory for precision measurements of the $τ$ properties. A few important topics in $τ$ physics where very relevant contributions could be made are highlighted.
This talk summarizes the status of the charmonium system, with particular emphasis on outstanding problems in QCD spectroscopy which a tau-charm factory can address.
We analyze in details the impact of the $10$ $ν_τ$ events seen in the OPERA experiment in constraining the Non Standard Interaction parameter $\varepsilon_{μτ}$ affecting neutrino propagation in matter and the allowed parameter space of models with one sterile neutrino of the $3+1$ type.
We study the possible effects of TeV scale new physics (NP) on the rate for Higgs boson decays to charged leptons, focusing on the tau tau channel which can be readily studied at the Large Hadron collider. Using an SU(3)_C X SU(2)_L X U(1)_Y invariant effective theory valid below a NP scale Lambda, we determine all effective operators up to dimension six that could generate appreciable contributions to the decay rate and compute the dependence of the rate on the corresponding operator coefficients. We bound the size of these operator coefficients based on the scale of the tau mass, naturalness…
Recent theoretical results in tau lepton physics and their implications for the experimental analysis are presented. The paper is split into the following chapters: 1. Introduction, 2. Weak Couplings, 3. Inclusive Decays, Perturbative QCD and Sum Rules, 4. Exclusive Decays, 5. Beyond the Standard Model.
The usage of polarimetry and spin-correlation tests to determine the {\em complete Lorentz structure} of the tau lepton's charged and neutral-current couplings is reviewed. The emphasis is on tests for ``something'' in a $(V-A) + $ ``something'' structure in ${J^{Charged}}_{Lepton}$ current, so as to bound the scales $Λ$ for ``new physics" such as arising from tau weak magnetism, weak electricity, and/or second-class currents. Tests for $T$ and for $CP$ violation are discussed.
This talk gives a very short overview of some of the important physical phenomena observed at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). The emphasis is put on the multiplicities, hard probes and the properties of the initial state.
We study the spin polarizations of both tau leptons in the decay b -> s tau+ tau-. In addition to the polarization asymmetries involving a single tau, we construct asymmetries for the case where both polarizations are simultaneously measured. We also study forward-backward asymmetries with polarized tau's. We find that a large number of asymmetries are predicted to be large, >~ 10%. This permits the measurement of all Wilson coefficients and the b-quark mass, thus allowing the standard model (SM) to be exhaustively tested. Furthermore, there are many unique signals for the presence of new phys…
In tau physics, we are at the frontier between the completion of the LEP program and the start of analyses from b-factories, which are expected to produce results in the coming years. Nice results from CLEO are steadily delivered in the meantime. For charm, impressive progress have been achieved by fixed target experiments in the search for CP violation and D^0 - \bar D^0 oscillations. First results from b-factories demonstrate the power of these facilities in such areas. The novel measurement of the D* width by CLEO happens to be rather different from current expectations. The absence of a ch…
Hadronic decays rates of the $τ$ lepton into multi meson final states are presented. The structure of the hadronic matrix elements for various decay modes is discussed. The formalism of structure functions allows for a detailed test of these matrix elements. Various correlations are discussed which are sensitive to possible CP violation and new physics effects in the decay modes.
We analyze the sensitivity of hadronic tau decays to non-standard interactions within the model-independent framework of the Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT). Both exclusive and inclusive decays are studied, using the latest lattice data and QCD dispersion relations. We show that there are enough theoretically clean channels to disentangle all the effective couplings contributing to these decays, with the $τ\to ππν_τ$ channel representing an unexpected powerful New Physics probe. We find that the ratios of non-standard couplings to the Fermi constant are bound at the sub-percent l…
Recent developments of physics at the TeV energy scale, especially physics related to the electron-positron linear colliders are briefly reviewed. The topics include the present status of the standard model, Higgs physics, supersymmetry, strongly interacting electroweak symmetry breaking mechanism, and top quark physics.
Recent developments in charm physics within the standard model and beyond are reviewed. The precision study of leptonic charm meson decays accompanied with the constraints coming from K, B and tau physics enables to determine constraints on models of new physics. The standard model contributions in the D0 - D0bar system are still under investigation including operators of higher dimensions. New physics models such as the Littlest Higgs model or warped extra-dimensional models might modify the amount of CP violation, although CP violating asymmetries are still predicted to be at most of the ord…
Recent evidence for neutrino oscillations has revolutionized the study of neutrino masses and mixing. This report gives an overview of what we are learning from the neutrino oscillation experiments, the prospects for the near term, and the bright future of neutrino mass studies.
In this presentation I will primarily focus on top quark physics but I will include a discussion of the W-boson mass and the possibility of discovering a light Higgs boson via associated production at the Tevatron.
I review the current status of our knowledge of CP violation and flavor physics. I discuss where one should look for future improvements, and outline the experimental and theoretical priorities of the field.
I give an overview of the theory status of predictions for single W and Z boson production at hadron colliders. I briefly report on work in progress for improvements necessary to match the anticipated high precision of electroweak measurements, such as the W mass and width, at the Fermilab Tevatron p anti-p and the CERN LHC pp colliders.
We present an overview of the use of IR-improvement of unintegrable singularities in the infrared regime via amplitude-based resummation in $\mathrm{QED} \times \mathrm{QCD}$ $\subset$ $\mathrm{SU}(2)_L \times \mathrm{U}_1 \times \mathrm{SU}(3)^c$. We work in the context of precision LHC/FCC physics. While illustrating such IR-improvement in specific examples, we discuss new results and new issues.
In this overview, I discuss some of the open issues in Kaon physics. After briefly touching on lattice calculations of Kaon dynamics and tests of CPT, my main focus of attention is on epsilon prime over epsilon and on constraints on the CKM model. The impact of rare K- decays and of experiments with B-mesons for addressing the issue of CP-violation is also discussed. The importance of looking for signals of flavor-conserving CP violating phases is emphasized.
This is a Concluding Talk, not a Summary of the FPCP 2011 Conference. I will first make some comments on the status and the prospects of particle physics and then review some of the highlights that particularly impressed me at this Conference (a subjective choice).
I discuss three B physics results with potential for exhibiting new flavour-changing interactions: (1) the time-dependent CP asymmetry in B\to J/ψK_S decay; (2) branching fractions and CP asymmetries in B\to ππ, πK decays; (3) inclusive and exclusive semi-hadronic b\to s transitions.
The recently measured B -> tau nu branching ratio allows to test the Standard Model by probing virtual effects of new heavy particles, such as a charged Higgs boson. The accuracy of the test is currently limited by the experimental error on BR(B -> tau nu) and by the uncertainty on the parameters fB and |Vub|. The redundancy of the Unitarity Triangle fit allows to reduce the error on these parameters and thus to perform a more precise test of the Standard Model. Using the current experimental inputs, we obtain BR(B -> tau nu)_SM = (0.84 +- 0.11)x10^{-4}, to be compared with BR(B -> tau nu)_exp…
Hadronic tau decays represent a clean laboratory for the precise study of quantum chromodynamics (QCD). Observables (sum rules) based on the spectral functions of hadronic tau decays can be related to QCD quark-level calculations to determine fundamental quantities like the strong coupling constant, parameters of the chiral Lagrangian, |V_us|, the mass of the strange quark, and to simultaneously test the concept of quark-hadron duality. Using the best available measurements and a revisited analysis of the theoretical framework, the value alpha_s(m_tau) = 0.345 +- 0.004[exp] +- 0.009[theo] is o…
An overview of DIS 2003 is given with a focus on small-x physics and the interrelationship between deep inelastic scattering and heavy ion physics which furnishes much of the basic information for understanding high-density QCD matter. In addition to small-x physics, topics covered include single spin asymmeteries, light-cone gauge choices, strange quarks in the proton and non-global observables in jet decays.
In this talk I review the low x QCD experimental results from HERA and their theoretical underpinnings. In particular, I discuss the structure function $F_2$, large rapidity gap events, pomeron structure functions and $J/ψ$ production.
Machine Learning (ML) techniques are rapidly finding a place among the methods of High Energy Physics data analysis. Different approaches are explored concerning how much effort should be put into building high-level variables based on physics insight into the problem, and when it is enough to rely on low-level ones, allowing ML methods to find patterns without explicit physics model. In this paper we continue the discussion of previous publications on the CP state of the Higgs boson measurement of the H to tau tau decay channel with the consecutive tau^pm to rho^pm nu; rho^pm to pi^pm pi^0 an…
Selected topics in the field of relativistic heavy-ion collisions are reviewed f rom the 15 year research programme at the SPS at CERN and the AGS at BNL, and from the first run of the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider at BNL.
Many models for physics beyond the Standard Model predict lepton-flavour violating decays of charged leptons at a level which may become observable very soon. We investigate the decays of a Tau-lepton into three charged leptons (Tau -> lll', l(') = e,μin a generic way. Using effective-field-theory methods, the relevant operators are classified according to their chirality structure. For each case, we work out the Dalitz plots for the decay distributions, including interference terms which arise from four-lepton operators and radiatively induced processes. We discuss phenomenological implicatio…
Several recent measurements at the Tevatron experiments point towards an anomalously large forward-backward asymmetry in top-antitop production. This article summarizes the main classes of physics beyond the standard model that can give rise to a large asymmetry. Complementary measurements at the Large Hadron Collider will allow to distinguish between different models and thereby contribute to clarifying the presently puzzling picture.
The deviation between the standard model prediction and the measurement of the muon g-2 is currently at 3-4 sigma (can be up to 7 sigma in the upcoming experiment E989). If new physics is responsible for such discrepancy, it is expected that the new contributions to tau g-2 are even larger than that for muon due to its large mass. In spite of that, the tau g-2 is much more difficult to be directly measured because of its short lifetime. In this paper, we consider the effect of the tau g-2 at $e^-e^+$ colliders in a model independent way. Using the tau pair production channel at the Large Elect…
The B Factories have generated a large amount of new results on the tau lepton. The present status of some selected topics on tau physics is presented: charged-current universality tests, bounds on lepton-flavour violation, the determination of alpha_s from the inclusive tau hadronic width, and the measurement of |V_{us}| through the Cabibbo-suppressed decays of the tau lepton.
This contribution summarizes some of the important theoretical progress that has been made in the arena of electroweak physics at hadron colliders. The focus is on developments that have sharpened theoretical predictions for final states produced through electroweak processes. Special attention is paid to new results that have been presented in the last year, since LHCP2015, as well as on key issues for future measurements at the LHC.
This is a mini-review of recent theoretical work in the field of relativistic heavy ion physics. The following topics are discussed: initial conditions and the Color Glass Condensate; approach to thermalization and the hydrodynamical evolution; hard probes and the properties of the Quark-Gluon Plasma. Some of the unsolved problems and potentially promising directions for future research are listed as well.