Magnetic moments of heavy quarks and leptons

Abstract

Theoretical arguments suggest that if quarks and leptons are composite objects, the heavy species have relatively large anomalous magnetic moments. We analyze some possible experiments in which anomalous magnetic moments of heavy quarks and leptons could be measured; the angular distribution of heavy-fermion pair production in electron-positron annihilation turns out to be sensitive to the existence of anomalous moments. According to a crude analysis, nonvanishing anomalous magnetic moments of heavy quarks and leptons are compatible with the presently available data from SLAC and DESY.