Measurement of the $τ$ lepton polarization in the decay ${\bar B} \rightarrow D^* τ^- {\bar ν_τ}$

Abstract

We report the first measurement of the $τ$ lepton polarization in the decay ${\bar B} \rightarrow D^* τ^- {\barν_τ}$ as well as a new measurement of the ratio of the branching fractions $R(D^{*}) = \mathcal{B}({\bar B} \rightarrow D^* τ^- {\barν_τ}) / \mathcal{B}({\bar B} \rightarrow D^* \ell^- {\barν_{\ell}})$, where $\ell^-$ denotes an electron or a muon, with the decays $τ^- \rightarrow π^- ν_τ$ and $τ^- \rightarrow ρ^- ν_τ$. We use the full data sample of $772 \times 10^6$ $B{\bar B}$ pairs accumulated with the Belle detector at the KEKB electron-positron collider. Our preliminary results, $R(D^*) = 0.276 \pm 0.034{\rm (stat.)} ^{+0.029} _{-0.026}{\rm (syst.)}$ and $P_τ = -0.44 \pm 0.47 {\rm (stat.)} ^{+0.20} _{-0.17} {\rm (syst.)}$, are consistent with the theoretical predictions of the Standard Model within $0.6$ standard deviation.