Measurements of Charged Current Lepton Universality and $|V_{us}|$ using Tau Lepton Decays to $e^- \barν_e ν_τ$, $μ^- \barν_μ ν_τ$, $π^- ν_τ$, and $\K^- ν_τ$

The BaBar Collaboration, Philip Clark

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Using 467 $fb^{-1}$ of $e^+e^-$ annihilation data collected with the BaBar detector, we measure $\frac{{\cal{B}}(\tau^- \to \mu^- \bar{\nu}_\mu \nu_\tau)}{{\cal{B}}(\tau^- \to e^- \bar{\nu}_e \nu_\tau)} = (0.9796 \pm 0.0016 \pm 0.0036)$, $\frac{{\cal{B}}(\tau^- \to \pi^- \nu_\tau)}{{\cal{B}}(\tau^- \to e^- \bar{\nu}_e \nu_\tau)} = (0.5945 \pm 0.0014 \pm 0.0061)$, and $\frac{{\cal{B}}(\tau^- \to \K^- \nu_\tau)}{{\cal{B}}(\tau^- \to e^- \bar{\nu}_e \nu_\tau)} = (0.03882 \pm 0.00032 \pm 0.00057)$, where the uncertainties are statistical and systematic, respectively. From these precision $\tau$ measurements, we test the Standard Model assumption of $\mu$-$e$ and $\tau$-$\mu$ charge current lepton universality and provide determinations of $|V_{us}|$ experimentally independent of the decay of a kaon and which we compare with the value predicted from the unitarity of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix.
Original languageEnglish
JournalPhysical Review Letters
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 2009

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • hep-ex

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