A novel method for the direct measurement of the elusive magnetic and electric dipole moments of the τ lepton is presented. The experimental approach relies on the production of τ + leptons from D + s → τ + ντ decays, originating in fixed-target collisions at the LHC. A sample of polarized τ + leptons is kinematically selected and subsequently channeled in a bent crystal. The magnetic and electric dipole moments of the τ + lepton are measured by determining the rotation of the spinpolarization vector induced by the intense electromagnetic field between crystal atomic planes. The experimental technique is discussed along with the expected sensitivities. PACS numbers: 13.35.Dx, 13.40.Em, 14.60.Fg Measurements of the electromagnetic dipole moments for common particles like the electron, muon and nucleons, combined with precise theoretical calculations, provide stringent tests of physics within and beyond the Standard Model (SM) [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. For short-lived particles like heavy baryons and the τ lepton, the short lifetime (∼ 10 −13 s) prevents the use of the spin-precession technique adopted in the muon g − 2 experiment [3,4]. Recently, the possibility of directly measuring the electromagnetic dipole moments of short-lived baryons, produced in fixed-target collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and channeled in bent crystals [9][10][11][12][13][14], has been considered. For the τ lepton, the use of B + → τ + ν τ decays was suggested [15] and more recently the D + s → τ + ν τ process with higher yield has been explored [16]. In this Letter, a novel method that fully exploits the polarization properties of τ + leptons produced in D + s decays is proposed. The magnetic (MDM) and the electric (EDM) dipole moments are defined as µ = ge /(2m τ c)s/2 and δ = de /(2m τ c)s/2, respectively, where m τ is the τ mass, g (d) is the gyromagnetic (gyroelectric) factor, and s is the spin-polarization vector [17]. In the SM, the τ anomalous MDM is expected to be a = (g − 2)/2 ≈ 10 −3 [18], and its EDM, d, to be minuscule [19]. However, the dipole moments can be largely enhanced in the presence of physics beyond the SM [20,21]. Methods based on precise measurements of the τ + τ − pair production cross section in e + e − annihilations set indirect limits on a at the few percent level [22], still above the SM prediction, and lead to limits on δ at 10 −16 e cm level [23]. Other indirect measurements have been suggested to improve the precision [20,24,25].The proposed solution to provide direct measurements of the τ dipole moments, illustrated in Fig. 1, is based on the large production cross section of high-energy polarized τ + leptons, originating in proton fixed-target col-Z y D + s τ + W target θ y,D s τ p Y z θ y π + π + π − c r y s t a l sν τ ν τ FIG. 1: (color online). Sketch of the fixed-target setup along with the τ + production and decay processes (not to scale). The crystal frame (X,Y ,Z) is tilted in the laboratory frame (x, y, z) by θy to avoid channeling of non-interacting protons.lisions at the LHC. T...