Statistical study of tau-decay data

1 December 1988

journal article
research article
Published by American Physical Society (APS) in Physical Review D

Vol. 38 (11), 3351-3364
https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.38.3351

Abstract

In the measured decay properties of the tau there is a discrepancy between the total branching fraction for the one-charged-particle decay modes and the sum of the branching fractions for the known individual modes. This discrepancy is derived from about 60 different measurements of branching fractions and some use of weak-interaction theory. Our statistical study of these 60 measurements shows there are problems in some of the measurements in the estimation of experimental bias or systematic error. But there is no evidence that the discrepancy derives from experimental bias or from incorrect estimation of systematic error.

Keywords

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