LHC tau-pair production constraints on $a_\tau$ and $d_\tau$

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that high-energy tau-pair production measurements at the LHC can set competitive constraints on the tau lepton's anomalous magnetic and electric moments, surpassing some low-energy bounds.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method to constrain tau anomalous moments using LHC data, highlighting the energy-dependent enhancement of deviations from the Standard Model.

Findings

Derived new bounds on $a_\tau$ and $d_\tau$ from LHC Run II data.

Showed that high-energy measurements can outperform low-energy precision tests.

Compared LHC constraints with existing limits, demonstrating competitive sensitivity.

Abstract

We point out that relevant constraints on the anomalous magnetic ($a_\tau$) and electric ($d_\tau$) moment of the tau lepton can be derived from tau-pair production measurements performed at the LHC. Our conclusion is based on the observation that the leading relative deviations from the Standard Model prediction for $pp \to \tau^+ \tau^-$ due to $a_\tau$ and $d_\tau$ are enhanced at high energies. Less precise measurements at hadron colliders can therefore offer the same or better sensitivity to new physics with respect to high-precision low-energy measurements performed at lepton machines. We derive bounds on $a_\tau$ and $d_\tau$ using the full LHC Run II data set on tau-pair production and compare our findings with the current best limits on the tau anomalous moments.