Lebanese University

Faculty of Sciences (I)

Electroweak theory: PHYS 437
Duration: 2 hours

Final exam: August 2, 2019

I) Pion decay
The meson π − , which consists of a quark-antiquark bound state: |π − i = |dūi can decay through
charged weak interaction as:
π − (p) −→ µ− (p2 ) + ν̄µ (p3 ).
Note that the W − couples to bound quarks in the |π − (p)i: −i 2g√w2 fπ pµ .

1. Draw the corresponding Feynman diagram and write down the matrix element M.

2. After summing over all outgoing spins, show that:

1 fπ2 gw4
 
2
2 (p · p2 ) (p · p3 ) − p2 (p2 · p3 ) .
 
h|M |i = 4
8 Mw

3. Working in the rest frame of π − , show that the decay rate for the above reaction is given
by:

fπ2 gw 4 2
 
1 2 2 2 1
h|M2 |i.


Γ= = 3
m µ m π − m µ . Use: Γ =
τ πmπ 4Mw 16πmπ

4. What happens if we assume a massless muon. Comment on that.

5. Find the branching ratio R in terms of me , mµ and mπ .

Γ (π − −→ e− ν̄e )
R= .
Γ (π − −→ µ− ν̄µ )

6. Use the numerical values of the masses to show that the decay of the pion to the more massive
state µ is 104 times more likely. Can you justify physically this apparently counterintuitive
result?
Take me = 0.510 Mev, mµ = 105.658 Mev and mπ = 139.570 Mev.

II) Electron-neutrino scattering

We suppose that the energy of particles are large enough to neglect their mass(mµ , me −→ 0)
but remain negligible with respect to the weak bosons mass (q 2 << MW,Z 2 ). The two following

reactions are considered:

0 0 0 0
νµ (k) + e− (p) −→ νe (k ) + µ− (p ) (1), ν̄e (k) + e− (p) −→ ν̄µ (k ) + µ− (p ) (2).

1
 1. Draw the Feynman diagrams and deduce the two amplitudes.
2. With the help of formulas, show that:
4
s2

gw
h|M21 |i = .
Mw 2

3. Without performing the detailed calculations, deduce (with justification) that

gw 4 t2
 
2
h|M2 |i = .
Mw 2

4. Find the total cross sections σ(νµ + e− −→ νe + µ− ) and σ(ν̄e + e− −→ ν̄µ + µ− ). Use:
dσ h|M2 |i pf
= .
dΩ 64π 2 s pi
σ(νµ +e− −→νe +µ− )
5. Conclude that R = σ(ν̄e +e− −→ν̄µ +µ− )
= 3. Comment!

h
0 ν
i  
µ 5 5 µ 0ν ν 0µ 0 µν 0 ρµην
Use: T r p / γ 1 − γ p
/ γ 1 − γ = 8 p p + p p − p · p g + ip p
ρ η 
0 2
   
ρµην gµν = 0, ρµην µναβ = −2 δαρ δβη − δβρ δαη , s = (k + p)2 , t = p − k .

III) Higgs production at LEP

LEP (Large Electron-Positron collider) was a lepton collider operating in the LHC tunnel at
CERN from 1989 until 2000. It was able to collide electron and positron beams with a maximum
centre of mass energy of 209 GeV reached in year 2000. The main production channel for the Higgs
boson at LEP was the so-called Higgs-strahlung: e− (p1 ) + e+ (p2 ) −→ Z(p3 ) + H(p4 )

p1 p4

e− h

e+ Z
p2 p3

Figure 1: Feynman diagram for the Higgs-strahlung process.

1. Indicate the direction of time in this Feynman diagram.

2. What type of mediator is involved in this process?Which quantity is conserved?
3. We assume massive leptons, and massive final state particles.
Given: s = (p1 + p2 )2 , t = (p1 − p3 )2 , u = (p1 − p4 )2 . Show that: s + t + u = 2m2e +
m2z + m2h .