How to Identify Events Containing a Particle-Antiparticle Pair

Perhaps the simplest types of events to identify are those in which the electron and positron annihilate to produce a \(Z^{0}\) that then decays to produce a particle-antiparticle pair. The particle and antiparticle then fly off back to back and are observed in the detector. We represent the production of, for example, a muon-antimuon pair in \(Z^{0}\) decay by means of the following diagram:

Here are some events containing the different types of particle-antiparticle pairs, with hints on how to identify them:

\(e^{+}e^{-} \rightarrow \mu^{+}\mu^{-}\)

\(e^{+}e^{-} \rightarrow e^{+}e^{-}\)

\(e^{+}e^{-} \rightarrow \tau^{+}\tau^{-}\)

\(e^{+}e^{-} \rightarrow q\bar{q}\)

• Next: Challenge 2
• Back: Challenge 1