Tau polarization effects in $\nu_\tau / \bar{\nu}_\tau$-tungsten interactions at the LHC energies

TL;DR

This paper studies how tau polarization affects pion production in tau neutrino interactions with tungsten at LHC energies, highlighting the sensitivity of pion properties to tau polarization and form factors.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of tau polarization effects on pion kinematics in high-energy neutrino-tungsten interactions at the LHC.

Findings

Pion momentum, energy, and angular distributions are sensitive to tau polarization.

Tau polarization significantly influences pion decay characteristics.

The form factor $F_5$ impacts the pion production observables.

Abstract

Recent studies have demonstrated that the tau produced in charged current neutrino deeply inelastic interactions at the GeV -- TeV neutrino energy range is not fully polarized. In this paper we investigate the impact of the tau polarization on the pions generated in its decay. In particular, we consider tau neutrino - tungsten interactions at the LHC energies and estimate the associated pion momentum, energy and angular distributions. The contribution of the $F_5$ is also investigated. Our results indicate that the pion properties are sensitive to the tau polarization state as well as to the magnitude of $F_5$.