Measurement of the kaon content of three-prong [tau] decays

• Published in: Physical review. D, Particles and fields Particles and fields, 1994-07, Vol.50:1
• Main Authors: Bauer, D.A., Belcinski, R., Berg, R.C., Bingham, H.H., Bloom, E.D., Buchanan, C.D., Caldwell, D.O., Chun, S., Clark, A.R., Dahl, O.I., Eastman, J.J., Eberhard, P.H., Eisner, A.M., Fairfield, K.H., Godfrey, G., Greenbaum, G.S., Hauptman, J.M., Hofmann, W., Holtzapple, R.L., Khacheryan, S., Knoepfle, K.T., Kofler, R.R., Lambert, D.J., Loken, S.C., Lu, A., Lynch, G.R., Lys, J.E., Madaras, R.J., Marsiske, H., Masek, G.E., Miller, E.S., Nicol, N.A., Nygren, D.R., Oyang, Y., Paar, H.P., Palounek, A.P.T., Pellett, D.E., Ronan, M.T., Ross, R.R., Shapiro, G., Stephens, R.W., Stevenson, M.L., Strauss, M.G., Sullivan, M.K., Vernon, W., Wang, E.M., Wang, Y., Wenzel, W.A., Yamamoto, H., Yellin, S.J., Yost, G.P., Zapalac, G.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 662370 - Decays of Leptons- (1992-); 662420 - Properties of Mesons & Meson Resonances- (1992-); 662430 - Properties of Leptons- (1992-); BOSONS; BRANCHING RATIO; DECAY; ELEMENTARY PARTICLES; FERMIONS; HADRONS; HEAVY LEPTONS; KAONS; LEPTONS; MASSLESS PARTICLES; MESONS; NEUTRINOS; PARTICLE DECAY; PARTICLE IDENTIFICATION; PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS; PIONS; POSTULATED PARTICLES; PSEUDOSCALAR MESONS; STRANGE MESONS; STRANGE PARTICLES; TAU NEUTRINOS; TAU PARTICLES
• ISSN: 0556-2821; 1089-4918
• DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.50.R13

We present branching fraction measurements of three-prong decays of the [tau][sup [minus]] lepton based on data from the TPC/Two-Gamma detector at SLAC PEP. The decays are classified according to the identities of the charged tracks to give simultaneous measurements of [ital B][[tau][sup [minus]][r arrow][nu][sub [tau]] [ital K][sup [minus]][pi][sup +][pi][sup [minus]]]=0.58[sub [minus]0.13][sup +0.15]% and [ital B][[tau][sup [minus]][r arrow][nu][sub [tau]] [ital K][sup [minus]][ital K][sup +][pi][sup [minus]]]=0.15[sub [minus]0.07][sup +0.09]%, and upper limits of [ital B][[tau][sup [minus]][r arrow][nu][sub [tau]][pi][sup [minus]][ital K][sup +][pi][sup [minus]]][lt]0.25%, [ital B][[tau][sup [minus]][r arrow][nu][sub [tau]] [ital K][sup [minus]][pi][sup +][ital K][sup [minus]]][lt]0.09%, and [ital B][[tau][sup [minus]][r arrow][nu][sub [tau]] [ital K][sup [minus]][ital K][sup +][ital K][sup [minus]]][lt]0.21%, where additional neutrals may be present in each case. The branching fractions are normalized to the world average three-prong topological branching fraction and there is an estimated 20% systematic error in addition to the listed statistical errors. We find the mass distributions in the [ital K][sup [minus]][pi][sup +][pi][sup [minus]] decay are consistent with [ital K][sub 1] dominance, and obtain branching fractions of [ital B][[tau][sup [minus]][r arrow][nu][sub [tau]] [ital K][sub 1][sup [minus]](1270)]=0.41[sub [minus]0.35][sup +0.41]% and [ital B][[tau][sup [minus]][r arrow][nu][sub [tau]] [ital K][sub 1][sup [minus]](1400)]=0.76[sub [minus]0.33][sup +0.40]%.