An effective Lagrangian approach for unstable particles

Abstract

We propose a novel procedure for handling processes that involve unstable intermediate particles. By using gauge-invariant effective Lagrangians it is possible to perform a gauge-invariant resummation of (arbitrary) self-energy effects. For instance, gauge-invariant tree-level amplitudes can be constructed with the decay widths of the unstable particles properly included in the propagators. In these tree-level amplitudes modified vertices are used, which contain extra gauge-restoring terms prescribed by the effective Lagrangians. We discuss the treatment of the phenomenologically important unstable particles, like the top-quark, the $W$- and $Z$-bosons, and the Higgs-boson, and derive the relevant modified Feynman rules explicitly.