The electron energy spectrum in muon decay through 𝒪(α2)

2005/05/19 by Charalampos Anastasiou, Kirill Melnikov, Frank Petriello
Physics and Astronomy · #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions #hep-ex #hep-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/1126-6708/2007/09/014

published as JHEP0709:014,2007 · 19 pages, 2 figures; reference added

arxiv created 2005/05/19 · openalex publication_date 2007/09/05 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2019/06/27 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01

Abstract

We compute the complete O(alpha²) QED corrections to the electron energy spectrum in unpolarized muon decay, including the full dependence on the electron mass. Our calculation reduces the theoretical uncertainty on the electron energy spectrum well below 10^-4, the precision anticipated by the TWIST experiment at TRIUMF, which is currently performing this measurement. For this calculation, we extend techniques we have recently developed for performing next-to-next-to-leading order computations to handle the decay spectra of massive particles. Such an extension enables further applications to precision predictions for b, t, and Higgs differential decay rates.

Citations

• Two-loop bosonic electroweak corrections to the muon lifetime and MZ–MW interdependence
• Integration by parts: The algorithm to calculate β-functions in 4 loops
• Complete two loop electroweak contributions to the muon lifetime in the Standard Model
• Connection between Feynman integrals having different values of the space-time dimension
• Complete 2-Loop Quantum Electrodynamic Contributions to the Muon Lifetime in the Fermi Model
• Degenerate Systems and Mass Singularities
• Hadronic corrections at \cal O(α²) to the energy spectrum of muon decay