Branching Fraction of the Decay $B^+ \to \pi^+ \tau^+ \tau^-$ and Lepton Flavor Universality Test via the Ratio $R_\pi (\tau/\mu)

• Main Authors: Ali, Ahmed, Parkhomenko, Alexander Ya, Parnova, Irina M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 27-03-2023
• Subjects: Physics - High Energy Physics - Experiment; Physics - High Energy Physics - Lattice; Physics - High Energy Physics - Phenomenology
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2303.15384

Phys. Lett. B 842 (2023) 137961 Among (semi)leptonic rare $B$-decays induced by the $b \to d$ flavor changing
neutral current, the decay $B^+ \to \pi^+ \mu^+ \mu^-$ is the only one observed
so far experimentally. Related decays involving the $e^+e^-$ and $\tau^+
\tau^-$ pairs are the targets for the ongoing experiments at the LHC, in
particular LHCb, and Belle II. The muonic and electronic semileptonic decays
have almost identical branching fractions in the Standard Model (SM). However,
the tauonic decay $B^+ \to \pi^+ \tau^+ \tau^-$ differs from the other two due
to the higher reaction threshold which lies slightly below the $\psi
(2S)$-resonance. We present calculations of the ditauon ($\tau^+ \tau^-$)
invariant-mass distribution and the branching fraction ${\rm Br} (B^+ \to \pi^+
\tau^+ \tau^-)$ in the SM based on the Effective Electroweak Hamiltonian
approach, taking into account also the so-called long-distance contributions.
The largest theoretical uncertainty in the short-distance part of the decay
rates is due to the $B \to \pi$ form factors, which we quantify using three
popular parametrizations. The long-distance contribution can be minimized by a
cut on the ditauon mass $m_{\tau^+ \tau^-} > M_{\psi (2S)}$. Once available,
the branching fractions in the tauonic and muonic (and electronic) modes
provide stringent test of the lepton flavor universality in the $b \to d$
transitions. We illustrate this by calculating the ratio $R_\pi (\tau/\mu)
\equiv {\rm Br} (B^+ \to \pi^+ \tau^+ \tau^-)/{\rm Br} (B^+ \to \pi^+ \mu^+
\mu^-)$ in the SM for the total and binned ratios of the branching fractions.