Emission of $W$ bosons by electrons and decays of $W$ bosons in the early universe

Abstract

In this paper we study the transition rates for the decay of $W^{\pm}$ bosons into leptons in de Sitter spacetime. From the results obtained in the de Sitter geometry we recover the Minkowski limits of the transition rates. We also study the emission of $W^{\pm}$ bosons by leptons, a process which is possible only in the large expansion conditions of the early universe. These results are obtainable due to perturbative methods which allow us to compute the transition amplitudes in the first order of perturbation theory. The resulting probabilities and rates depend on the particle masses and the Hubble parameter. In order to establish finite expressions for the probabilities and transition rates, we make use of dimensional regularization and the minimal substraction method.