Narrow-width approximation accuracy

Abstract

A study of general properties of the narrow-width approximation (NWA) with polarization/spin decorrelation is presented. We prove for total rates of arbitrary resonant decay or scattering processes with an on-shell intermediate state decaying via a cubic or quartic vertex that decorrelation effects vanish and the NWA is of order Gamma. Its accuracy is then determined numerically for all resonant 3-body decays involving scalars, spin-1/2 fermions or vector bosons. We specialize the general results to MSSM benchmark scenarios. Significant off-shell corrections can occur - similar in size to QCD corrections. We qualify the configurations in which a combined consideration is advisable. For this purpose, we also investigate process-independent methods to improve the NWA.

Comments: 22 pages, 7 figures, 1 table; added reference, version to appear in Nucl. Phys. B