Light new physics and the τ lepton dipole moments: prospects at Belle II

While electron and muon dipole moments are well-established precision probes of physics beyond the standard model, it is notoriously challenging to test realistic new-physics (NP) scenarios for the $\tau$ lepton. Constructing suitable asymmetries in $e^+e^-\to\tau^+\tau^-$ has emerged as a promising such avenue, providing access to the electric and magnetic dipole moment once a polarized electron beam is available, e.g., with the proposed polarization upgrade of the SuperKEKB $e^+e^-$ collider. However, this interpretation relies on an effective-field-theory (EFT) argument that only applies if the NP scale is large compared to the center-of-mass energy. In this Letter we address the consequences of the asymmetry measurements in the case of light NP, using light spin-0 and spin-1 bosons as test cases, to show how results can again be interpreted as constraints on dipole moments, albeit in a model-dependent manner, and how the decoupling to the EFT limit proceeds in these cases. In particular, we observe that the imaginary parts generated by light new particles can yield nonvanishing asymmetries even without electron polarization, which can again be interpreted as constraints on the $\tau$ anomalous magnetic moment. This proposed measurement, thus, presents a novel opportunity for NP searches that can be realized already with present data at Belle II.