Branching Fractions of tau Leptons to Three Charged Hadrons

TL;DR

This paper reports improved measurements of tau lepton decay branching fractions into three charged hadrons and a neutrino, using electron-positron collision data from the CLEO detector at CESR.

Contribution

It provides more precise values for tau decay modes involving three hadrons, including kaon and pion combinations, with updated experimental results.

Findings

Measured branching fractions for tau decays to three pions and kaons.

Set an upper limit for tau decay to three kaons.

Enhanced precision over previous measurements.

Abstract

From electron-positron collision data collected with the CLEO detector operating at CESR near \sqrt{s}=10.6 GeV, improved measurements of the branching fractions for tau decays into three explicitly identified hadrons and a neutrino are presented as {\cal B}(\tau^-\to\pi^-\pi^+\pi^-\nu_\tau)=(9.13\pm0.05\pm0.46)%, {\cal B}(\tau^-\to K^-\pi^+\pi^-\nu_\tau)=(3.84\pm0.14\pm0.38)\times10^{-3}, {\cal B}(\tau^-\to K^-K^+\pi^-\nu_\tau)=(1.55\pm0.06\pm0.09)\times10^{-3}, and {\cal B}(\tau^-\to K^-K^+K^-\nu_\tau)<3.7\times10^{-5} at 90% C.L., where the uncertainties are statistical and systematic, respectively.