Coherent, incoherent and inelastic cross sections for W-meson production by muons and neutrinos

Abstract

Cross sections for W-meson production by muons and neutrinos are calculated for vector-boson masses of 3 and 6 GeV and incident lepton energies of 50, 75 and 100 GeV. It is found that muon cross sections are up to a factor 1000 smaller than the corresponding neutrino cross sections, that W-mesons produced by muons are not polarized, while W-mesons produced by neutrinos are left-handed polarized, that in both processes the total inelastic cross sections are of the same order as the incoherent cross sections, and the σ(N) ∗ (i.e. the parts of the inelastic cross sections referring to N ∗) form a very small part of the total inelastic cross sections. The inelastic cross sections are calculated with the form factors W 1 and W 2, where the SLAC data are used. We modify W 1 so that it is consistent with positive definiteness and use scaling.