Narrow-width approximation accuracy Original Research Article

A study of general properties of the narrow-width approximation (NWA) with polarization/spin decorrelation is presented. We prove for sufficiently inclusive differential rates of arbitrary resonant decay or scattering processes with an on-shell intermediate state decaying via a cubic or quartic vertex that decorrelation effects vanish and the NWA is of order Γ. Its accuracy is then determined numerically for all resonant 3-body decays involving scalars, spin-image fermions or vector bosons. We specialize the general results to MSSM benchmark scenarios. Significant off-shell corrections can occur — similar in size to QCD corrections. We qualify the configurations in which a combined consideration is advisable. For this purpose, we also investigate process-independent methods to improve the NWA.