Gravitational decay of the Z-boson

Abstract

We study the decay process of the Z boson to a photon and a graviton. The most general form of the on-shell amplitude, subject to the constraints due to the conservation of the electromagnetic and the energy-momentum tensor, is determined. The amplitude is expressed in terms of three form factors, two of which are CP-odd while one is CP-even. The latter, which is the only non-zero form factor at the one-loop level, is computed in the standard model and the decay rate is determined.

30 pages, Latex, uses Axodraw. (Some typographical errors corrected, and some references added in the new version.)