Improved tau polarisation measurement

Using 22 pb⁻¹ of data collected at LEP in 1992 on the peak of the Z resonance, the ALEPH collaboration has measured the polarisation of the tau leptons decaying into ,πν, ρν and a₁ ν from their individual decay product distributions. The measurement of the tau polarisation as a function of the production polar angle yields the two parametersN _τ andN _e, where, in terms of the axial and vector couplingsg _Al andg _Vl,N _l=2g _Vl g_Al/(g _Vl ² +g _Al ² ). This analysis follows to a large extent the methods devised for the 1990 and 1991 data but with improvements which bring a better understanding of the systematic uncertainties. Combining the 1992 measurements with our previously published results yieldsN _τ=0.136±0.012±0.009 andN _e=0.129±0.016±0.005. Assuminge−τ universality, the measurements imply an effective weak mixing angle of sin ² θ _W ^eff =0.2332±0.0014. Deceased     

An upper limit on the tau neutrino mass from leptonic tau decays

The partial width of the τ → e ^- v _e v _τ can be calculated from the tau mass, lifetime and branching ratio. The increasing precision on these measurements is making the partial width sensitive to the mass of the tau neutrino. We present the tau neutrino mass dependence on the partial width and show that this leads to a limit of m _r < 71 MeV at the 95% confidence level. We show that the limit is determined by the uncertainty in the tau lifetime and τ → e?v _e v _τ branching ratio. Additional measurements of these values are expected in the next few years and we show that the limit could become competitive with the direct measurements.     

Rare tau decays from BABAR

The BABAR experiment has now completed data taking and with an integrated luminosity of 531 fb^-1 of e^＋e^- collision data has recorded some 480 million tau-pair events. Various studies of suppressed, rare and forbidden decays of the tau have been conducted, including searches for high-multiplicity decays, for second-class hadronic weak currents, and for lepton-flavour violation.     

Radiative tau decay into pion

The possibility of the experimental investigation of the radiative tau decay into pion is discussed including background conditions. The decay width is estimated to be Br(τ→v _τ π γ)=0.15% (at the minimal registered photon energy 50 MeV). The contribution of the structural component is 10% of the total radiation. The main background is produced by photons from the τ→v _τ π ^? π ⁰ decay. We investigate the angular and energy spectra of the decay products and analyse the background conditions. The kinematic region was found where the structural radiation dominates over background.