Laser effect on the final products of Z-boson decay

• Published in: Laser physics letters 2021-01, Vol.18 (1), p.16002
• Main Authors: Jakha, M, Mouslih, S, Taj, S, Manaut, B
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: decay rate; laser-assisted; standard electroweak model
• ISSN: 1612-2011; 1612-202X
• DOI: 10.1088/1612-202X/abd17d

Experimentalists have long sought a method that allows them to control the branching ratios of an unstable particle decay and direct some decay to follow one specific desired channel without another. The powerful laser could make this a reality. In this letter and within the framework of the standard electroweak model, we investigate theoretically the laser effect on the branching ratios of different Z-boson decay modes by calculating analytically the Z-boson decay into a fermion-antifermion (Z→ffˉ) pai in the presence of a circularly polarized electromagnetic field. It is found that, at high intensities, the Z-boson could only decay invisibly into neutrinos, and its decay into any other pair of charged fermions becomes impossible due to the increase in the effective mass that fermions acquire inside the electromagnetic field. The influence of the laser frequency and intensity on the lifetime is also included in order to confirm the surprising result obtained for the pion lifetime in a previous paper (Mouslih 2020 Phys. Rev. D 102 073006).