Consequences of weak heavy-quarkonium decay for masses greater than 40 GeV

Abstract

We examine the consequences of the weak decay of the heavy quark in quarkonium for high-energy colliders. We find that for quarks more massive than the $W$, the dominant decay of the quarkonium resonance is via the weak decay $h\ensuremath{\rightarrow}l+\mathrm{real} W$ where $h(l)$ is a heavy (light) quark. For quarks lighter than the $W$, weak effects substantially modify the expected branching ratio for quarkonium into leptons. Since "Coulombic" quarkonium, if it exists at all, is probably heavier than $2{M}_{W}$, the weak-decay mechanism may destroy any chance to examine the nature of such states.