Search for lepton-flavor violation in the decay tau- --> l- l+ l-

Phys Rev Lett. 2004 Mar 26;92(12):121801. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.121801. Epub 2004 Mar 26.

Abstract

A search for the lepton-flavor-violating decay of the tau into three charged leptons has been performed using 91.5 fb(-1) of data collected at an e(+)e(-)center-of-mass energy around 10.58 GeV with the BABAR detector at the SLAC storage ring PEP-II. In all six decay modes considered, the numbers of events found in data are compatible with the background expectations. Upper limits on the branching fractions are set in the range (1-3)x10(-7) at 90% confidence level.