Form-factor-independent test of lepton universality in semileptonic heavy meson and baryon decays

Abstract

In the semileptonic decays of heavy mesons and baryons the lepton-mass dependence factors out in the quadratic $\cos^2θ$ coefficient of the differential $\cosθ$ distribution. We call the corresponding normalized coefficient the convexity parameter. This observation opens the path to a test of lepton universality in semileptonic heavy meson and baryon decays that is independent of form-factor effects. By projecting out the quadratic rate coefficient, dividing out the lepton-mass-dependent factor and restricting the phase space integration to the $τ$ lepton phase space, one can define optimized partial rates which, in the Standard Model, are the same for all three $(e,μ,τ)$