The di-fermion angular distribution observed in decays of inclusively produced vector particles is characterized by two frame-independent observables, reflecting the average spin alignment of the produced particle and the magnitude of parity violation in the decay. The existence of these observables derives from the rotational properties of angular momentum eigenstates and is a completely general result, valid for any $J=1$ state and independent of the production process. Rotation-invariant formulations of polarization and of the decay parity asymmetry can provide more significant measurements than the commonly used frame-dependent definitions, also improving the quality of the comparisons between the measurements and the theoretical calculations.

• Received 25 September 2010

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.82.096002