Decay angular distributions of intermediate bosons produced by pions and by colliding beams

Abstract

The leptonic decay angular distributions of intermediate bosons are obtained as a possible means of identifying the production reaction; for the latter, we considered the cases: a) W production by pions on protons (both two-body and inelastic reactions), treated in the peripheral (one-pion exchange) approximation and b) W pair production in colliding negaton-positon beam experiments. We also investigate the polarization state of the boson by obtaining the 3 x 3 density matrix, and note its connection with the decay angular distributions.