MEASUREMENT OF TAU BRANCHING RATIOS

Using the data accumulated at LEP in 1989 and 1990 with the ALEPH detector, the inclusive and exclusive branching ratios of the tau-lepton have been measured assuming lepton universality in Z0 decays. The inclusive branching fractions for the tau-decay into one, three, and five charged particles have been determined to be (85.45 +/- 0.97)%, (14.35 +/- 0.48)%, and (0.10 +/- 0.05)%, respectively, in agreement with the world averages. New undetected decay modes are determined to have a branching fraction of less than 2.1% at 95% CL. The measured branching ratios for quasi-exclusive channels are slightly larger than, but consistent with the world averages, except for the modes tau --> 3 hadrons + nu(tau) and tau --> hadron + 2-pi(0)nu(tau), which are significantly larger. These latter branching ratios have been found to be (9.5 +/- 0.7)% and (10.2 +/- 1.1)%, respectively. The sum of all the measured quasi-exclusive branching ratios is (100.4 +/- 1.8)%. A fully exclusive analysis of modes with neutral pions shows no evidence for new photonic decay modes with a branching fraction limit of 3.4% at 95% CL.