Test of light-lepton universality in $\tau$ decays with the Belle II experiment

TL;DR

This paper reports a highly precise measurement of the ratio of tau decay branching fractions to muons and electrons, testing the principle of light-lepton universality and confirming the Standard Model predictions.

Contribution

It provides the most precise measurement to date of the tau decay ratio, using Belle II data and an optimized analysis method.

Findings

Measured $R_\mu$ with unprecedented precision

Confirmed lepton universality within experimental uncertainties

Results agree with Standard Model expectations

Abstract

We present a measurement of the ratio $R_\mu = \mathcal{B}(\tau^-\to \mu^-\bar\nu_\mu\nu_\tau) / \mathcal{B}(\tau^-\to e^-\bar\nu_e\nu_\tau)$ of branching fractions $\mathcal{B}$ of the $\tau$ lepton decaying to muons or electrons using data collected with the Belle II detector at the SuperKEKB $e^+e^-$ collider. The sample has an integrated luminosity of $362\!\pm\!2\,\text{fb}^{-1}$ at a centre-of-mass energy of $10.58\,\text{GeV}$. Using an optimised event selection, a binned maximum likelihood fit is performed using the momentum spectra of the electron and muon candidates. The result, $R_\mu = 0.9675 \pm 0.0007 \pm 0.0036$, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic, is the most precise to date. It provides a stringent test of the light-lepton universality, translating to a ratio of the couplings of the muon and electron to the $W$ boson in $\tau$ decays of $0.9974 \pm 0.0019$, in agreement with the standard model expectation of unity.