Wess-Zumino Current and the Structure of the Decay tau^- to K^-K^+ pi^- nu_tau

Abstract

We present the first study of the vector (Wess-Zumino) current in tau^-\to K^-pi^-K^+\nu_\tau decay using data collected with the CLEO III detector at the Cornell Electron Storage Ring. We determine the quantitative contributions to the decay width from the vector and axial vector currents. Within the framework of a model by Kuhn and Mirkes, we identify the quantitative contributions to the total decay rate from the intermediate states \omega\pi, \rho^{(\prime)}\pi and K^{*}K.