Test of light-lepton universality in τ decays with the Belle II experiment

We present a measurement of the ratio R_μ = B(τ⁻→ μ⁻ν_μν_τ) / B(τ⁻→ e⁻νₑν_τ) of branching fractions B of the τ lepton decaying to muons or electrons using data collected with the Belle II detector at the SuperKEKB e⁺e⁻ collider. The sample has an integrated luminosity of 362\!±\!2\,fb⁻¹ at a centre-of-mass energy of 10.58\,GeV. Using an optimised event selection, a binned maximum likelihood fit is performed using the momentum spectra of the electron and muon candidates. The result, R_μ = 0.9675 ± 0.0007 ± 0.0036, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic, is the most precise to date. It provides a stringent test of the light-lepton universality, translating to a ratio of the couplings of the muon and electron to the W boson in τ decays of 0.9974 ± 0.0019, in agreement with the standard model expectation of unity.