Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-gauge-field-theory-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2014/paper-1/2/solution

The Standard Model is a chiral gauge theory: left-chiral quarks and leptons form SU(2) weak doublets, while the corresponding right-chiral charged fields are weak singlets. The covariant kinetic term contains . With , its off-diagonal generators give the weak charged current
An overall interaction sign depends on the convention for the covariant derivative and has no effect on this decay rate. The chiral projector explains the vector-minus-axial combination. The Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix comes from the different left-handed rotations that diagonalize up- and down-type fermion mass matrices. Set and as stipulated.
Let , the massive vector polarization sum. Sum over final spins and average over the two equally populated initial top quark spins. The fermion spin sum and the Dirac adjoint of the vertex give
The term vanishes because . Anticommuting through the remaining gamma matrices, using , then using cyclicity of the matrix trace and the symmetry of yields
The extra factor two from the chiral algebra compensates the initial spin-average factor. The term with is antisymmetric in and vanishes upon contraction with . The remaining gamma-matrix trace is
Its contraction gives
Here , , and , so
Therefore
The two-body Lorentz-invariant phase space has rest-frame momentum . Substitution into gives the two-body top-quark decay width
The squared threshold factor combines the vanishing final momentum with the corresponding kinematic factor in the squared scattering amplitude. The longitudinal W boson polarization contributes the high-mass enhancement proportional to . The result is at tree level, for an on-shell W boson and ; finite bottom mass and radiative corrections change it. Restoring quark mixing multiplies the width by .

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