Production of new charged leptons decaying into massive neutrinos

Abstract

A recent paper from Perl pointed out that existing limits from $e^{+}$ $e^{\mathrm{-}}$ annihilation data for a fourth-generation charged lepton $L^{+}$ were not valid if the mass splitting between the lepton and its associated neutral lepton were small. The purpose of this paper is twofold: to urge experimentalists at hadron colliders to examine limits for charged leptons without assuming M($L^0$)=0, and to provide the necessary formulas for the widths and matrix elements. The formulas presented here assume couplings with arbitrary vector and axial-vector pieces and are thus applicable to the production and decay of other fermions such as right-handed leptons and supersymmetric fermions. We present some sample cross sections for $W^{+}$→$L^{+}$ $L^0$ applicable to the CERN Spp¯S collider.