Published 1989 | Version v1
Book

The τ-lepton lifetime discrepancy as evidence for the fourth family

Creators

  • 1. California Univ., Riverside, CA (USA). Dept. of Physics

Description

According to this paper, the measured lifetime of the tau lepton suggests that the e - μuniversality may not hold in the case of the third generation leptons. The universality of weak interactions can be restored by involving the existence of a fourth family of leptons and quarks. The charged lepton of the fourth family mixes with the tau lepton with a Cabibbo-like mixing angle. Agreement between the experimentally measured lifetime and the theoretical value as predicted by the standard SU(2)l x U(1) model on the basis of universality of weak interactions required the Cabibbo-like mixing angle (φ) to satisfy cosφ = 0.96 ± 0.02. For this mixing to be nontrivial, the neutrino associated with the fourth family charged lepton must be more massive than the tau lepton. The mass of the fourth family charged lepton is predicted to be less than 45 GeV if the relation between the masses and the mixing angle is given by Weinberg type formula i.e. tanφ = Square root of mτ/mχ where χ denotes the charged lepton of the fourth family

Additional details

Publishing Information

Publisher
The New York Academy of Sciences.
Imprint Place
New York, NY (USA)
ISBN
0-89766-581-3
Imprint Title
Proceedings of the fourth family of quarks and leptons. Second international symposium
Imprint Pagination
500 p.
Journal Page Range
p. 405-410.

Conference

Title
2. international symposium on the fourth family of quarks and leptons.
Dates
23-25 Feb 1989.
Place
Santa Monica, CA (USA).

Optional Information

Secondary number(s)
CONF-8902110--.