Elastic Scattering of Neutrinos off Polarized Electrons

We calculate the cross sections for elastic nu_l + e -> nu_l + e and antinu_l + e -> antinu_l + e scattering (l=e, mu or tau) in the Born approximation and with exactly fixed polarization states of target and final-state electrons, discussing their sensitivity to the incident (anti)neutrino flavor. We suggest investigation of the flavor composition of a (anti)neutrino beam by a flux-independent analysis of the scattering of its constituents off polarized electrons.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figure

Radiative μ\mu and τ\tau leptonic decays at NLO

We present the differential rates and branching ratios of the radiative decays $\tau \to l \bar{\nu} \nu \gamma$, with $l=e$ or $\mu$, and $\mu \to e \bar{\nu} \nu \gamma$ in the Standard Model at next-to-leading order. Radiative corrections are computed taking into account the full depencence on the mass $m_l$ of the final charged leptons, which is necessary for the correct determination of the branching ratios. Only partial agreement is found with previous calculations performed in the $m_l \to 0$ limit. Our results agree with the measurements of the branching ratios $\mathcal{B} (\mu \to e \bar{\nu} \nu \gamma)$ and $\mathcal{B} (\tau \to \mu \bar{\nu} \nu \gamma)$ for a minimum photon energy of 10 MeV in the $\mu$ and $\tau$ rest frames, respectively. Babar's recent precise measurement of the branching ratio $\mathcal{B} (\tau \to e \bar{\nu} \nu \gamma)$, for the same photon energy threshold, differs from our prediction by 3.5 standard deviations.Comment: 13 pages, 1 figure, results included as ancillary file

W-propagator corrections to muon and tau leptonic decays

We derive the corrections induced by the W-boson propagator to the differential rates of the leptonic decay of a polarized muon and tau lepton. Results are presented both for decays inclusive of inner bremsstrahlung as well as for radiative ones, when a photon emitted in the decay process is measured. The numerical effect of these corrections is discussed. The definition of the Fermi constant is briefly reviewed.Comment: 5 pages, no figures, accepted for publicatio

On the Field Renormalization Constant for Unstable Particles

A recently proposed normalization condition for the imaginary part of the self-energy of an unstable particle is shown to lead to a closed expression for the field renormalization constant Z. In turn, the exact expression for Z is necessary, in some important cases, in order to avoid power-like infrared divergences in high orders of perturbation theory. In the same examples, the width plays the r\^ole of an infrared cutoff and, consequently, Z is not an analytic function of the coupling constant.Comment: 7 pages (Latex

Master integrals for the NNLO virtual corrections to μe\mu e scattering in QED: the planar graphs

We evaluate the master integrals for the two-loop, planar box-diagrams contributing to the elastic scattering of muons and electrons at next-to-next-to leading-order in QED. We adopt the method of differential equations and the Magnus exponential series to determine a canonical set of integrals, finally expressed as a Taylor series around four space-time dimensions, with coefficients written as combination of generalised polylogarithms. The electron is treated as massless, while we retain full dependence on the muon mass. The considered integrals are also relevant for crossing-related processes, such as di-muon production at $e^+ e^-$-colliders, as well as for the QCD corrections to $top$-pair production at hadron colliders.Comment: published version, 39 pages, 7 figures, 3 ancillary file