Measurement of the Branching Ratio for D_s->tau nu_tau Decays

TL;DR

This paper reports a measurement of the D_s meson decay branching ratio to tau nu_tau using LEP data, providing an estimate of the decay constant with associated uncertainties.

Contribution

First measurement of D_s -> tau nu_tau branching ratio at LEP, deriving the decay constant with quantified statistical and systematic errors.

Findings

Branching ratio for D_s -> tau nu_tau is (7.0 +/- 2.1 +/- 2.0)%

Decay constant f(D_s) is 286 +/- 44 +/- 41 MeV

Results contribute to understanding D_s meson properties

Abstract

Using about 3.9 million hadronic Z decays from e+e- collisions recorded by the OPAL detector at LEP at centre-of-mass energies near MZ the branching ratio for the decay D_s -> tau nu_tau has been measured to be (7.0 +/- 2.1(stat) +/- 2.0 (syst))%. This result can be used to derive the decay constant of the D_s meson: f(D_s) = 286 +/- 44(stat) +/- 41(syst) MeV.