Measurement of Tau Branching Ratios to Five Charged Hadrons

TL;DR

This paper reports the measurement of tau lepton decay branching ratios to five charged hadrons using data from the OPAL detector at LEP, providing precise experimental values near the Z resonance.

Contribution

First measurement of tau decay branching ratios to five charged hadrons at LEP energies, with detailed statistical and systematic analysis.

Findings

BR(tau- to 3h-2h+nu_tau) = 0.091%

BR(tau- to 3h-2h+pi0nu_tau) = 0.027%

Quantified uncertainties in measurements

Abstract

The branching ratios of the decay of the tau lepton to five charged hadrons have been measured with the OPAL detector at LEP using data collected between 1991 and 1995 at e+e- centre-of-mass energies close to the Z resonance. The branching ratios are measured to be BR(tau- to 3h-2h+nutau) = 0.091+-0.014+-0.005% BR(tau- to 3h-2h+pi0nutau) = 0.027+-0.018+-0.007% where the first error is statistical and the second systematic.