Tau Decays into Four Pions

Abstract

We compute branching ratios and invariant mass distributions of the tau decays into four pions. The hadronic matrix elements are obtained by starting from the structure of the hadronic current in chiral limit and then implementing low-lying resonances in the different channels. Reasonable agreement with experiment is obtained both for the $τ\to ν_τ + (4 π) $ decay rates and the $e^+e^- \to (4 π) $ cross sections. Furthermore we supply an interface to use our matrix elements within the Tauola Monte-Carlo program.