On the connection between the pinch technique and the background field method

The connection between the pinch technique and the background field method is further explored. We show by explicit calculations that the application of the pinch technique in the framework of the background field method gives rise to exactly the same results as in the linear renormalizable gauges. The general method for extending the pinch technique to the case of Green's functions with off-shell fermions as incoming particles is presented. As an example, the one-loop gauge independent quark self-energy is constructed. We briefly discuss the possibility that the gluonic Green's functions, obtained by either method, correspond to physical quantities.Comment: 13 pages and 3 figures, all included in a uuencoded file, to appear in Physical Review

The heavy quark decomposition of the S-matrix and its relation to the pinch technique

We propose a decomposition of the S-matrix into individually gauge invariant sub-amplitudes, which are kinematically akin to propagators, vertices, boxes, etc. This decompsition is obtained by considering limits of the S-matrix when some or all of the external particles have masses larger than any other physical scale. We show at the one-loop level that the effective gluon self-energy so defined is physically equivalent to the corresponding gauge independent self-energy obtained in the framework of the pinch technique. The generalization of this procedure to arbitrary gluonic $n$-point functions is briefly discussed.Comment: 11 uuencoded pages, NYU-TH-94/10/0

Electroweak pinch technique to all orders

The generalization of the pinch technique to all orders in the electroweak sector of the Standard Model within the class of the renormalizable 't Hooft gauges, is presented. In particular, both the all-order PT gauge-boson-- and scalar--fermions vertices, as well as the diagonal and mixed gauge-boson and scalar self-energies are explicitly constructed. This is achieved through the generalization to the Standard Model of the procedure recently applied to the QCD case, which consist of two steps: (i) the identification of special Green's functions, which serve as a common kernel to all self-energy and vertex diagrams, and (ii) the study of the (on-shell) Slavnov-Taylor identities they satisfy. It is then shown that the ghost, scalar and scalar--gauge-boson Green's functions appearing in these identities capture precisely the result of the pinching action at arbitrary order. It turns out that the aforementioned Green's functions play a crucial role, their net effect being the non-trivial modification of the ghost, scalar and scalar--gauge-boson diagrams of the gauge-boson-- or scalar--fermions vertex we have started from, in such a way as to dynamically generate the characteristic ghost and scalar sector of the background field method. The pinch technique gauge-boson and scalar self-energies are also explicitly constructed by resorting to the method of the background-quantum identities.Comment: 48 pages, 8 figures; v2: typos correcte

11^{11}B NMR detection of the magnetic field distribution in the mixed superconducting state of MgB2_2

The temperature dependence of the magnetic field distribution in the mixed superconducting phase of randomly oriented MgB$_2$ powder was probed by $^{11}$B NMR spectroscopy. Below the temperature of the second critical ($B_{{c2}}$) field, $T_{{c2}}\approx 27$K, our spectra reveal two NMR signal components, one mapping the magnetic field distribution in the mixed superconducting state and the other one arising from the normal state. The complementary use of bulk magnetization and NMR measurements reveals that MgB$_2$ is an anisotropic superconductor with a $B_{c2}^c<2.35$ Tesla anisotropy parameter $\gamma\approx 6$

On the charge radius of the neutrino

Using the pinch technique we construct at one-loop order a neutrino charge radius, which is finite, depends neither on the gauge-fixing parameter nor on the gauge-fixing scheme employed, and is process-independent. This definition stems solely from an effective proper photon-neutrino one-loop vertex, with no reference to box or self-energy contributions. The role of the $WW$ box in this construction is critically examined. In particular it is shown that the exclusion of the effective WW box from the definition of the neutrino charge radius is not a matter of convention but is in fact dynamically realized when the target-fermions are right-handedly polarized. In this way we obtain a unique decomposition of effective self-energies, vertices, and boxes, which separately respect electroweak gauge invariance. We elaborate on the tree-level origin of the mechanism which enforces at one-loop level massive cancellations among the longitudinal momenta appearing in the Feynman diagrams, and in particular those associated with the non-abelian character of the theory. Various issues related to the known connection between the pinch technique and the Background Field Method are further clarified. Explicit closed expressions for the neutrino charge radius are reported.Comment: 26 pages, plain Latex, 7 Figures in a separate ps fil

Tau anomalous magnetic moment form factor at Super B/Flavor factories

The proposed high-luminosity B/Flavor factories offer new opportunities for the improved determination of the fundamental physical parameters of standard heavy leptons. Compared to the electron or the muon case, the magnetic properties of the $\tau$ lepton are largely unexplored. We show that the electromagnetic properties of the $\tau$, and in particular its magnetic form factor, may be measured competitively in these facilities, using unpolarized or polarized electron beams. Various observables of the $\tau$'s produced on top of the $\Upsilon$ resonances, such as cross-section and normal polarization for unpolarized electrons or longitudinal and transverse asymmetries for polarized beams, can be combined in order to increase the sensitivity on the magnetic moment form factor. In the case of polarized electrons, we identify a special combination of transverse and longitudinal $\tau$ polarizations able to disentangle this anomalous magnetic form factor from both the charge form factor and the interference with the Z-mediating amplitude. For an integrated luminosity of $15 \times 10^{18} b^{-1}$ one could achieve a sensitivity of about $10^{-6}$, which is several orders of magnitude below any other existing high- or low-energy bound on the magnetic moment. Thus one may obtain a QED test of this fundamental quantity to a few % precision.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figure

The t->WZb decay in the Standard Model: A Critical Reanalysis

We compute the t->WZb decay rate, in the Standard Model, at the leading order in perturbation theory, with special attention to the effects of the finite widths of the W and Z bosons. These effects are extremely important, since the t->WZb decay occurs near its kinematical threshold. They increase the value of the decay rate by orders of magnitude near threshold or allow it below the nominal threshold. We discuss a procedure to take into account the finite-width effects and compare the results with previous studies of this decay. Within the Standard Model, for a top quark mass in the range between 170 and 180 GeV, we find BR(t->WZb) ~ 2 x 10^{-6}, which makes the observation at the LHC very difficult if at all possible.Comment: 10 pages, 4 eps figures, LaTeX. Few references added and minor changes in the text. Results unchanged. Final version to appear on PL