Updated measurement of the τ lifetime

R. Akers*, G. Alexander, J. Allison, K. J. Anderson, S. Arcelli, S. Asai, A. Astbury, D. Axen, G. Azuelos, A. H. Ball, E. Barberio, R. J. Barlow, R. Bartoldus, J. R. Batley, G. Beaudoin, A. Beck, G. A. Beck, J. Becker, C. Beeston, T. BehnkeK. W. Bell, G. Bella, P. Bentkowski, S. Bentvelsen, P. Berlich, S. Bethke, O. Biebel, I. J. Bloodworth, P. Bock, H. M. Bosch, M. Boutemeur, S. Braibant, P. Bright-Thomas, R. M. Brown, A. Buijs, H. J. Burckhart, C. Burgard, P. Capiluppi, R. K. Carnegie, A. A. Carter, J. R. Carter, C. Y. Chang, C. Charlesworth, D. G. Charlton, S. L. Chu, P. E.L. Clarke, J. C. Clayton, S. G. Clowes, I. Cohen, J. E. Conboy, M. Coupland, M. Cuffiani, S. Dado, C. Dallapiccolla, G. M. Dallavalle, C. Darling, S. De Jong, H. Deng, M. Dittmar, M. S. Dixit, E. do Couto e Silva, J. E. Duboscq, E. Duchovni, G. Duckeck, I. P. Duerdoth, U. C. Dunwoody, P. A. Elcombe, P. G. Estabrooks, E. Etzion, H. G. Evans, F. Fabbri, B. Fabbro, M. Fanti, M. Fierro, M. Fincke-Keeler, H. M. Fischer, P. Fischer, R. Folman, D. G. Fong, M. Foucher, H. Fukui, A. Fürtjes, P. Gagnon, A. Gaidot, J. W. Gary, J. Gascon, N. I. Geddes, C. Geich-Gimbel, S. W. Gensler, F. X. Gentit, T. Geralis, G. Giacomelli, P. Giacomelli, R. Giacomelli, V. Gibson, W. R. Gibson, J. D. Gillies, J. Goldberg, D. M. Gingrich, M. J. Goodrick, W. Gorn, C. Grandi, P. Grannis, E. Gross, J. Hagemann, G. G. Hanson, M. Hansroul, C. K. Hargrove, J. Hart, P. A. Hart, M. Hauschild, C. M. Hawkes, E. Heflin, R. J. Hemingway, G. Herten, R. D. Heuer, J. C. Hill, S. J. Hillier, T. Hilse, D. A. Hinshaw, P. R. Hobson, D. Hochman, A. Höcker, R. J. Homer, A. K. Honma, R. E. Hughes-Jones, R. Humbert, P. Igo-Kemenes, H. Ihssen, D. C. Imrie, A. Jawahery, P. W. Jeffreys, H. Jeremie, M. Jimack, M. Jones, R. W.L. Jones, P. Jovanovic, C. Jui, D. Karlen, K. Kawagoe, T. Kawamoto, R. K. Keeler, R. G. Kellogg, B. W. Kennedy, B. King, J. King, S. Kluth, T. Kobayashi, M. Kobel, D. S. Koetke, T. P. Kokott, S. Komamiya, R. Kowalewski, R. Howard, P. Krieger, J. von Krogh, P. Kyberd, G. D. Lafferty, H. Lafoux, R. Lahmann, J. Lauber, J. G. Layter, P. Leblanc, P. Le Du, A. M. Lee, E. Lefebvre, M. H. Lehto, D. Lellouch, C. Leroy, J. Letts, L. Levinson, Z. Li, F. Liu, S. L. Lloyd, F. K. Loebinger, G. D. Long, B. Lorazo, M. J. Losty, X. C. Lou, J. Ludwig, A. Luig, M. Mannelli, S. Marcellini, C. Markus, A. J. Martin, J. P. Martin, T. Mashimo, P. Mättig, U. Maur, J. McKenna, T. J. McMahon, A. I. McNab, J. R. McNutt, F. Meijers, F. S. Merritt, H. Mes, A. Michelini, R. P. Middleton, G. Mikenberg, J. Mildenberger, D. J. Miller, R. Mir, W. Mohr, C. Moisan, A. Montanari, T. Mori, M. Morii, U. Müller, B. Nellen, B. Nijjhar, S. W. O'Neale, F. G. Oakham, F. Odorici, H. O. Ogren, C. J. Oram, M. J. Oreglia, S. Orito, J. P. Pansart, G. N. Patrick, M. J. Pearce, P. Pfister, P. D. Phillips, J. E. Pilcher, J. Pinfold, D. Pitman, D. E. Plane, P. Poffenberger, B. Poli, A. Posthaus, T. W. Pritchard, H. Przysiezniak, M. W. Redmond, D. L. Rees, D. Rigby, M. Rison, S. A. Robins, D. Robinson, J. M. Roney, E. Ros, S. Rossberg, A. M. Rossi, M. Rosvick, P. Routenburg, Y. Rozen, K. Runge, O. Runolfsson, D. R. Rust, M. Sasaki, C. Sbarra, A. D. Schaile, O. Schaile, F. Scharf, P. Scharff-Hansen, P. Schenk, B. Schmitt, H. von der Schmitt, M. Schröder, H. C. Schultz-Coulon, P. Schütz, M. Schulz, C. Schwick, J. Schwiening, W. G. Scott, M. Settles, T. G. Shears, B. C. Shen, C. H. Shepherd-Themistocleous, P. Sherwood, G. P. Siroli, A. Skillman, A. Skuja, A. M. Smith, T. J. Smith, G. A. Snow, R. Sobie, R. W. Springer, M. Sproston, A. Stahl, C. Stegmann, K. Stephens, J. Steuerer, B. Stockhausen, R. Ströhmer, D. Strom, P. Szymanski, H. Takeda, T. Takeshita, S. Tarem, M. Tecchio, P. Teixeira-Dias, N. Tesch, M. A. Thomson, S. Towers, T. Tsukamoto, M. F. Turner-Watson, D. Van den plas, R. Van Kooten, G. Vasseur, M. Vincter, A. Wagner, D. L. Wagner, C. P. Ward, D. R. Ward, J. J. Ward, P. M. Watkins, A. T. Watson, N. K. Watson, P. Weber, P. S. Wells, N. Wermes, B. Wilkens, G. W. Wilson, J. A. Wilson, V. H. Winterer, T. Wlodek, G. Wolf, S. Wotton, T. R. Wyatt, A. Yeaman, G. Yekutieli, M. Yurko, W. Zeuner, G. T. Zorn

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

21 Scopus citations

Abstract

We present an update of our measurement of the τ lepton lifetime, using data taken during 1992 and 1993 with the OPAL detector at LEP. The lifetime is determined from analyses of the impact parameters of tracks from τ decays to a single charged particle, and the reconstructed decay lenghts from the τ decays to three charged particles. With the added statistics (which increase the τ pair event sample size by more than a factor of four over our 1990 and 1991 data sample), the updated lifetime measurement is: ττ = 288.8 ± 2.2 (stat) ± 1.4 (sys) fs. When combined with world-average measurements of the tau leptonic branching fractions (assuming e-μ universality), the ratio of charged-current couplings is: ( gτ gμ) = 1.005 ± 0.007, in agreement with the hypothesis of τ-μ charged-current universality.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)497-506
Number of pages10
JournalPhysics Letters, Section B: Nuclear, Elementary Particle and High-Energy Physics
Volume338
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 3 Nov 1994

Funding

FundersFunder number
Direction des Sciences de la Mati~re du Commissariat l'Energie Atomique
Fussefeld Foundation
German Israeli Bi-national Science Foundation
Israel Ministry of Science, Israel Science Foundation
Minerva Gesellschaft
National Science Foundation
U.S. Department of Energy
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities
Junta Nacional de Investigação Científica e Tecnológica

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