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

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

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