We consider the possibility of studying new physics that singles out the tau-lepton at the LHC. We concentrate on the tau-lepton charge asymmetry in tau+tau- pair production as a tool to probe this physics beyond the Standard Model. We consider two generic scenarios for the new physics. We first study a non-universal Z' boson as an example of a new resonance that can single out tau-leptons. We then consider vector lepto-quarks coupling of the first generation quarks with the third generation leptons as an example of non-resonant new physics. We find that in both cases the charge asymmetry can be sufficiently sensitive to the new physics to provide useful constraints at the LHC.
We consider the three--body decay stop_1 -> b tau+ tau-sneutrino and propose the asymmetry of the tau polarization perpendicular to the decay plane as a CP sensitive observable. We calculate this asymmetry in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model taking the parameters mu and A_t complex. In the parameter domain where the decay stop_1 -> b tau+ tau-sneutrino is important this asymmetry can go up to 30%. We also estimate the event rates necessary to observe this asymmetry at 90% CL.
We report on the recent results of searches for lepton-flavor-violating tau decays as well as lepton-number-violating B decays with the world-highest data samples accumulated at the Belle.
The tau-lepton plays an important role in the physics program at LHC. Its spin can be used for separation of signal from background or in measuring properties of New Particles decaying to tau leptons. The TauSpinner package represents a tool to modify tau spin effects in any sample containing tau leptons. Generated events, featuring taus produced from intermediate state W, Z, H bosons can be used as an input. The information on the polarization and spin correlations is reconstructed from the kinematics of the tau lepton(s) (nutau in case of W-mediated processes) and tau decay products. By weig…
The invariant mass of tau lepton pairs turns out to be smaller than the resonant mass of their mother particle and the invariant mass distribution is stretched wider than the width of the resonant mass as significant fraction of tau lepton momenta are carried away by neutrinos escaping undetected at collider experiments. This paper describes a new approach to reconstruct resonant masses of heavy particles decaying to tau leptons at such experiments. A typical example is a Z or Higgs boson decaying to a tau pair. Although the new technique can be used for each tau lepton separately, I combine t…
A novel method for the direct measurement of the elusive magnetic and electric dipole moments of the tau lepton is presented. The experimental approach relies on the production of tau+ leptons from Ds+ -> tau+ nu_tau decays, originated in fixed-target collisions at the LHC. A sample of polarized tau+ leptons is kinematically selected and subsequently channeled in a bent crystal. The magnetic and electric dipole moments of the tau+ lepton are measured by determining the rotation of the spin-polarization vector induced by the intense electromagnetic field between crystal atomic planes. The exper…
We report the recent results of a search for lepton-flavor-violating tau decays and a search for CP violation in tau to nu Ks pi using a large data sample accumulated with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy e^+e^- collider. The sensitivity to these modes is significantly improved compared to previous experiments.
We study Lepton Flavour Violating hadron decays of the tau lepton within the Simplest Little Higgs model. Namely we consider $τ\rightarrow μ(P, V, PP)$ where $P$ and $V$ are short for a pseudoscalar and a vector meson. We find that, in the most positive scenarios, branching ratios for these processes are predicted to be, at least, four orders of magnitude smaller than present experimental bounds.
In this talk I discuss the role of heavy quarks in new physics searches with tau leptons. I focus on new physics effects associated to the scalar sector which are naturally enhanced for the heaviest fermions due to the large hierarchy of the fermion masses. I will discuss two topics within this context: lepton flavour violation in the $τ- \ell$ ($\ell=e,μ$) sector and violations of lepton universality in tauonic $B$ decays.
An intriguing opposite sign of the CP violating asymmetry was recently measured in the tau decay modes tau -> Ks pi nutau by the BaBar collaboration, than that expected within the Standard Model. If this result is confirmed with higher precision, the observed decay rate asymmetry ACP, can only arise from some Non-Standard Interactions(NSI) occurring possibly in both the hadronic as well as in the leptonic sectors. We illustrate that while a simple charged scalar interaction cannot yield this rate asymmetry, it will be possible to generate this in the presence of a tensor interaction. Parameter…
We show that the asymmetry in the neutral current events (e.g. Nu N -> Nu N pi^0) can be used to discriminate between Nu_mu - Nu_tau and Nu_mu - Nu_st mixing as being responsible for the atmospheric neutrino anomaly. Specifically, A_N vanishes for Nu_mu - Nu_tau mixing and is about 2/3 A_mu for Nu_mu - Nu_st mixing.
The TauSpinner algorithm allows to modify the physics of the Monte Carlo generated samples due to the changed assumptions of event production dynamics, without re-generating events. To each event it attributes weights: the spin effects of tau-lepton production or decay, or the production mechanism are modified. There is no need to repeat the detector response simulation. We document the extension to 2 to 4 processes in which the matrix elements for the parton-parton scattering amplitudes into a tau-lepton pair and two outgoing partons are used. Tree-level matrix elements for the Standard Model…
Within the Standard Model Effective Field Theory framework, with operators up to dimension 6, we perform a model-independent analysis of the lepton-flavour-violating processes involving tau leptons. Namely, we study hadronic tau decays and $\ell$--$τ$ conversion in nuclei, with $\ell = e,μ$. Based on available experimental limits, we establish constraints on the Wilson coefficients of the operators contributing to these processes. Our work paves the way to extract the related information from Belle II and foreseen future experiments.
Searches for lepton flavor violation in tau decays are unambiguous signatures of new physics. The branching ratios of tau leptons at the level of 10^-10 - 10^-9 can be probed with 50 ab^-1 of electron-positron annihilation data being collected by the Belle II experiment at the world's highest luminosity accelerator, the SuperKEKB, located at the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization, KEK, in Tsukuba, Japan. Searches with such expected sensitivity will either discover new physics or strongly constrain several new physics models.
We determine the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix (CKM) element |Vus| in several different ways using updated preliminary HFAG averages for the tau lepton branching fractions and we compare the results with the determinations obtained from the kaon decays and from the unitarity of the CKM matrix.
We consider CP-violating effects in tau -> 3 pi nu_ tau and 4 pi nu_ tau (Delta S = 0), and tau -> K pi pi nu_tau (Delta S = 1), assuming that the usual Standard Model amplitudes for these processes interfere with analogous amplitudes mediated by a charged Higgs boson. In the Delta S = 0 case we focus specifically on the intermediate resonant processes tau -> V pi nu_tau (with V=omega, rho, and a_1), and consider three CP-odd observables -- the partial rate asymmetry, a polarization-dependent asymmetry and a triple-product asymmetry. In the Delta S = 1 case we examine the partial rate asymmetr…
The tau lepton can be more composite than naively expected in models of strong electroweak symmetry breaking with tri-bimaximal lepton mixing. New leptonic resonances required by custodial symmetry, the tau custodians, can then be the first signal of this lepton flavor realization. Tau custodians can be very light, decaying almost exclusively into taus. The LHC reach for these new leptons is up to masses of 240, 480 and 720 GeV for sqrt{s}=14 TeV and an integrated luminosity of 30, 300 and 3000 fb^{-1}, respectively. Our analysis can be extended to any pair produced particles decaying mostly i…
We confront the indications of lepton flavor universality (LFU) violation observed in semi-tauonic $B$ meson decays with new physics (NP) searches using high $p_T$ tau leptons at the LHC. Using effective field theory arguments we correlate possible non-standard contributions to semi-tauonic charged currents with the $τ^+ τ^-$ signature at high energy hadron colliders. Several representative standard model extensions put forward to explain the anomaly are examined in detail: (i) weak triplet of color-neutral vector resonances, (ii) second Higgs doublet and (iii) scalar or (iv) vector leptoquark…
The seeming violation of universality in the tau lepton coupling to the W boson suggested by LEP II data is studied using an Effective Field Theory (EFT) approach. Within this framework we explore how this feature fits into the current constraints from electroweak precision observables using different assumptions about the flavor structure of New Physics, namely [U(2) x U(1)]^5 and U(2)^5. We show the importance of leptonic and semileptonic tau decay measurements, giving 3-4 TeV bounds on the New Physics effective scale at 90% C.L. We conclude under very general assumptions that it is not poss…
The main highlights discussed at TAU2012 are briefly summarized. Besides the standard topics on lepton physics covered also at previous conferences (universality, QCD tests, V_{us} determination from tau decay, g-2, neutrino oscillations, lepton-flavour violation), the tau lepton is playing now a very important role in searches for new physics phenomena.
Within the Standard Model Effective Field Theory framework, with operators up to dimension 6, we perform a model-independent analysis of the lepton-flavour-violating processes involving tau leptons. Namely, we study hadronic tau decays and $\ell$-$τ$ conversion in nuclei ($\ell=e,μ$). Based on available experimental limits, we establish constraints on the Wilson coefficients of the operators contributing to these processes. The related information from Belle II and foreseen future experiments can be easily incorporated into the resulting framework.
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 Monte Carlo for lepton pair production andtau decays consist of KKMC for lepton pair production, tauola for tau lepton decays and photos for radiative corrections in decays. An effort for adaptation of the system for precision data being collected at the Belle II experiment included simulation of additional light lepton pairs. Extension to processes where lepton pair is produced through narrow resonances, like dark photon or dark scalar phi resonances, was straight forward. Modified programs versions are available in stand-alone format from gitlab repository or through the basf2 system of …
Within our present knowledge, the tau is the heaviest lepton and the only one decaying into hadrons, a fact that makes it the source of a very rich phenomenology. It represents the third family of leptons in the Standard Model, a feature that helps its classification but whose real meaning is not asserted yet. The tau lepton provides: i) a clean and unique environment to study both the hadronization of QCD currents, in an energy region populated by resonances, and the phenomenological determination of relevant parameters of the Model; ii) together with the muon, they have a very constrained fl…
Tau lepton emission in two-nucleon disappearance reactions from within nuclei which conserve baryon number minus lepton number (B-L) is considered. It is shown that some existing limits on proton decay channels and two-nucleon disappearance reactions resulting in electrons and muons can be applied to $ΔB=ΔL=2$ decays involving $τ$ leptons. For the two-nucleon disappearance channel $np\toτ^+ \overlineν_τ$ the estimated limit for the partial mean life is $\fracτ{Br}>1\times10^{30}$ yrs based on results from the IMB3 experiment. Re-analysis of existing data and future experiments could result in …
Charged lepton flavor violation has long been recognized as unambiguous signature of New Physics. Here we describe the physics capabilities and discovery potential of New Physics models with charged lepton flavor violation in the tau sector as its experimental signature. Current experimental status from the B-Factory experiments BaBar, Belle and Belle II, and future prospects at Super Tau Charm Factory, LHC, EIC and FCC-ee experiments to discover New Physics via charged lepton flavor violation in the tau sector are discussed in detail. Submitted to the Proceedings of the US Community Study on …
The structure of the form factors stemmed from the hadronization of QCD currents in the energy region of the resonances can be explored through the analyses of exclusive hadronic decays of the tau lepton. I give a short review on the later theoretical progress achieved in the description of experimental data.
We study the effects induced by excited leptons on the leptonic tau decay at one loop level. Using a general effective lagrangian approach to describe the couplings of the excited leptons, we compute their contributions to the leptonic decays and use the current experimental values of the branching ratios to put limits on the mass of excited states and the substructure scale.
The decay width, forward-backward asymmetry and tau lepton longitudinal and transversal polarization for the exclusive (B -> K tau^+ tau^-) decay in a two Higgs doublet model are computed. It is shown that the forward-backward asymmetry and longitudinal polarization of the tau lepton are very effective tools for establishing new physics.
We evaluate the compositeness effects of tau lepton on the vertex W-tau-nu(tau) in the context of an effective Lagrangian approach. We consider that only the third family is composed and we get the corrections to the non universal lepton coupling g_(tau)/g_(e). As the experimental bounds on non universal lepton couplings in W decays are weak, we find that the excited particles contributions do not give realistic limits on the excited mass, since they lead to Lambda<m*.
Now the bounds on the lepton-flavor violating (LFV) decay modes of tau lepton are being improved by the Belle experiment in the KEK B factory. In this paper the LFV decay of tau lepton is discussed in the supersymmetric seesaw model, using the current neutrino oscillation data.
Decay rate, forward-backward asymmetry and polarization asymmetries of final state leptons in B-> K_{1}tau ^{+}tau ^{-}, where K_{1} is the axial vector meson, are calculated in Standard Model and in the universal extra dimension (UED) model. The sensitivity of the observables on the compactification radius $R$, the only unknown paramter in UED model, is studied. Finally, the helicity fractions of the final state K_{1} are calculated and their dependence on the compactification radius is discussed. This analysis of helicity fraction is briefly extended to B->K^{*}l ^{+}l ^{-}(l =e,mu) and comp…
Lepton flavor violation in tau and mu processes is studied in the littlest Higgs model with T-parity. We consider various asymmetries defined in polarized tau and mu decays. Correlations among branching ratios and asymmetries are shown in the following lepton flavor violation processes: mu+ --> e+ gamma, mu+ --> e+ e+ e-, mu- A --> e- A (A = Al, Ti, Au and Pb), tau+ --> mu+ gamma, tau+ --> mu+ mu+ mu-, tau+ --> mu+ e+ e-, tau+ --> mu+ P (P = pi0, eta and eta'), tau+ --> mu+ V (V = rho0, omega and phi), tau+ --> e+ gamma, tau+ --> e+ e+ e-, tau+ --> e+ mu+ mu-, tau+ --> e+ P, tau+ --> e+ V, tau…
Anomalies from the LHCb lepton flavour universality and Fermilab muon anomalous magnetic momentum, show tantalizing hints of possible new physics from the lepton sectors. Due to its large mass and shorter lifetime than muon, the tau lepton is believed to couple more to possible new physics beyond the standard model. Traditionally, tau leptons are probed through the decay products due to tau's short life time. On the other hand, at a high energy scale, a large fraction of tau leptons could be boosted to a much longer life time and fly a visible distance from several centimetres up to kilometer …
As of version 8.150 of Pythia, the isotropic decay model of tau-leptons has been replaced with sophisticated tau-lepton decay machinery. The decays and spin correlations for tau-leptons in Pythia 8 are described, including the spin correlation algorithm, the available tau-lepton production processes, the tau-lepton decay models, the user interface, and the implementation.
We investigate CP violation asymmetry in the decay of tau slepton into a tau neutrino and a chargino in the minimal supersymmetric standard model. The new source of CP violation is the complex mixing in the tau slepton sector. The rate asymmetry between the decays of tau slepton and its CP conjugate process can be of order of $10^{-3}$ in some region of the parameter space of the mSUGRA scenario, which will possibly be detectable in the near-future collider experiments.
The status of the Monte Carlo programs for the simulation of the $τ$ lepton production in high energy accelerator experiments and decay is reviewed. In particular, the status of the following packages is discussed: (i) TAUOLA for tau-lepton decay, (ii) PHOTOS for radiative corrections in decays, (iii) KORALB, KORALZ, KKMC packages for tau-pair production in e+e- collisions and (iv) universal interface of TAUOLA for the decay of tau-leptons produced by``any'' generator. Special emphasis on requirements from new and future experiments is given. Some considerations about the software organization…
The most general model independent expressions for the CP-violating asymmetry, longitudinal, transversal and normal polarizations of leptons are derived. Application of these general results to the concrete models such as Standard model and three different types of two Higgs doublet model is discussed.
TAUOLA is a Monte Carlo generator dedicated to generating tau-lepton decays and it is used in the analysis of experimental data both at B-factories and LHC. TAUOLA is a long-term project that started in the 90's and has been under development up to now. In this note we discuss the status of the predominant hadronic tau-lepton decays into two ($Br \simeq 25.52\%$) and three pions ($Br \simeq 18.67\%$).
It has been pointed out recently that current low-energy constraints still allow for sizable flavor-changing decay rates of the 125 GeV boson into leptons, h -> tau ell (ell= e, mu). In this work we discuss the role of hadronic tau-lepton decays in probing lepton flavor violating couplings in the Higgs sector. At low energy, the effective Higgs coupling to gluons induced by heavy quarks contributes to hadronic tau decays, establishing a direct connection with the relevant process at the LHC, pp (gg)-> h -> tau ell. Semileptonic transitions like tau -> ell pi pi are sensitive to flavor-changing…
If muon neutrinos produced in cosmological sources oscillate, neutrino telescopes can have a chance to detect tau-neutrinos. In contrast to muon neutrinos the Earth is completely transparent for tau neutrinos thanks to the short life time of tau-leptons produced in charged current interactions. Tau-lepton decaysin flight producing another tau neutrino (regeneration chain). Thus, tau neutrinos cross the Earth without being absorbed, though loosing energy both in regeneration processes and in neutral current interactions. Neutrinos of all flavors can be detected in deep underwater/ice detectors …
Using LEP1, SLD and LEP2 data, for tau lepton production, and data from CDF, D0 and LEP2, for W decays into tau leptons, we set model independent limits on non-standard electromagnetic and weak magnetic moments of the tau lepton. The most general effective Lagrangian giving rise to tau moments is used without further assumptions. Precise bounds ($2σ$) on the non-standard model contributions to tau electromagnetic ($-0.007<a_γ< 0.005$), tau Z-magnetic ($-0.0024 <a_Z< 0.0025$) and tau W-magnetic ($-0.003 < κ^W < 0.004$) dipole moments are set from the analysis.
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.
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 dimension-six CP-violating SU_L(2)\times U_Y(1) invariant operators involving the tau lepton are studied. The constraints from the available experimental data on tau dipole moments are derived. Under the current constraints, the induced CP-violating effects could possibly be observed in tau -> 3πν_τ at the future tau-charm factory.
For some time the measured value of tau-lepton mass continues to approach closer and closer a particular figure 1776.80 MeV predicted by an intrinsically composite model of three generations of leptons and quarks, introduced almost two decades ago. In the framework of this model, we recall briefly the argument standing behind our prediction.
We analyze the CP violation in the semileptonic | ΔS|=1 tau-decays in supersymmetric extensions of the standard model (SM) with R parity violating term. We show that the CP asymmetry of tau-decay is enhanced significantly and the current experimental limits obtained by CLEO collaborations can be easily accommodated. We argue that observing CP violation in semi leptonic tau-decay would be a clear evidence for R-parity violating SUSY extension of the SM.
The most stringent bounds on the anomalous magnetic and electric dipole moments of the tau lepton was derived by Escribano and Massó[6] from the Z width at LEP in an effective lagrangian approach to the new physics. In this paper we point out that the higher dimensional operators introduced by Escribano and Massó not only modify the neutral currents of the tau lepton to Z gauge boson and the photon, but also induce lepton flavor violation (LFV). The size of the LFV effect depends crucially on the dynamics of the lepton mass generation. Assuming the lepton mass matrices in the form of an Fritzs…
We study possible scalar type interactions in tau^- -->pi^- pi^0 nu_tau decay. One finds that an angular distribution asymmetry, A(s), can be induced from the interference between the scalar part and vector part amplitudes in this decay. Our analysis shows that, in the two-Higgs-doublet model of type II with large tan beta, the charged Higgs contribution could make A(s) up to 10^{-3} without conflict with present experimental constraints. Thus in the future precise experiments in tau-charm factories, this angular distribution asymmetry may be an interesting observable either to be helpful in s…
Minimal extensions of the Standard Model that are motivated by grand unified theories or superstring models with an E_6 symmetry can naturally predict heavy neutrinos of Dirac or Majorana nature. Such heavy neutral leptons violate the de- coupling theorem at the one-loop electroweak order and hence offer a unique chance for possible lepton-flavour decays of the tau lepton, e.g. tau -> eee or tau -> mu mu mu, to be seen in LEP experiments. We analyze such decays in models with three and four generations.
We calculated the differential cross sections of the processes in which one of the pair created tau particles at an e^+ e^- collider decays into lepton flavor violating final states e.g. tau -> mu gamma, tau -> 3 mu, tau -> mu ee. Using the correlations between angular distributions of both sides of tau decays, we can obtain information on parity and CP violations of lepton flavor non-conserving interactions. The formulae derived here are useful in distinguishing different models, since each model of physics beyond the standard model predicts different angular correlations. We also calculate a…
We discuss upper limits on the electric dipole moments (EDM) of the tau-lepton, heavy quarks, and W-boson, which follow from the precision measurements of the electron and neutron EDM.
Status of tau lepton decay Monte Carlo generator TAUOLA, and its main recent applications are reviewed. It is underlined, that in recent efforts on development of new hadronic currents, the multi-dimensional nature of distributions of the experimental data must be taken with a great care. Studies for H to tau tau; tau to hadrons indeed demonstrate that multi-dimensional nature of distributions is important and available for evaluation of observables where tau leptons are used to constrain experimental data. For that part of the presentation, use of the TAUOLA program for phenomenology of H and…
