Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-particle-physics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2018/1/a/solution
Past exam of the particle physics course of the University of Oxford 2018 1 a Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-25
Work in the W boson rest frame, taking the spin-quantization axis along its laboratory motion. Neglect charged-lepton and neutrino masses. The weak charged current produces a negative-helicity and a positive-helicity antineutrino. Their momenta are opposite, so both spin Vectors point opposite to the charged lepton's direction ; the final total spin projection along is .
Let denote the parent spin projection along . In the given probability amplitude, use and the rotation element . The supplied spin-one rotation elements giveThe transverse states have spin projections ; the longitudinal state has projection zero, not total spin zero. The original diagram below distinguishes momenta from spins and shows the corresponding normalized angular profiles.
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