Measurement of the Michel parameters in leptonic tau decays

The Michel parameters of the leptonic decays are measured using the OPAL detector at LEP. The parameters , , (with ) and are extracted from the energy spectra of the charged decay leptons and from their energy–energy correlations. A new method involving a global likelihood fit of Monte Carlo generated events with complete detector simulation and background treatment has been applied to the data recorded at center-of-mass energies close to corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 155 pb. If e- universality is assumed and inferring the polarization from neutral current data, the measured Michel parameters are: where the value of has been constrained using the published OPAL measurements of the leptonic branching ratios and the lifetime. Limits on non-standard coupling constants and on the masses of new gauge bosons are obtained. The results are in agreement with the V–A prediction of the Standard Model. Received: 25 June 1998 / Published online: 1 March 1999