Exclusive Branching-Fraction Measurements of Semileptonic τ Decays into Three Charged Hadrons, into φπ−ντ, and into φK−ντ

Abstract

Using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 342 fb − 1 collected with the BABAR detector at the SLAC PEP-II electron-positron storage ring operating at a center-of-mass energy near 10.58 GeV, we measure B ( τ − → π − π − π + ν τ ( ex . K 0 S ) ) = ( 8.83 ± 0.01 ± 0.13 ) % , B ( τ − → K − π − π + ν τ ( ex . K 0 S ) ) = ( 0.273 ± 0.002 ± 0.009 ) % , B ( τ − → K − π − K + ν τ ) = ( 0.1346 ± 0.0010 ± 0.0036 ) % , and B ( τ − → K − K − K + ν τ ) = ( 1.58 ± 0.13 ± 0.12 ) × 10 − 5 , where the uncertainties are statistical and systematic, respectively. These include significant improvements over previous measurements and a first measurement of B ( τ − → K − K − K + ν τ ) in which no resonance structure is assumed. We also report a first measurement of B ( τ − → ϕ π − ν τ ) = ( 3.42 ± 0.55 ± 0.25 ) × 10 − 5 , a new measurement of B ( τ − → ϕ K − ν τ ) = ( 3.39 ± 0.20 ± 0.28 ) × 10 − 5 and a first upper limit on B ( τ − → K − K − K + ν τ ( ex . ϕ ) ) .