Review of tau physics at CLEO II with prospects for the B factories Available to Purchase

The CLEO II detector, located in Ithaca, New York, is an excellent tool for the study of the tau lepton. With a peak luminosity of about 3×10³² cm⁻² s⁻¹, CESR (Cornell Electron‐Positron Storage Ring) produces the highest luminosity of any e⁺e⁻ collider. Having accumulated about 4 fb⁻¹ of data (approximately 3.6 million τ pairs), CLEO II boasts the worlds largest sample of tau events. The CLEO II detector allows for a spectrum of measurements, including measurements of the tau mass, lifetime, a wide variety branching fractions, suppressed decays, study of rare decays, and a limit on the tau neutrino mass. As a consequence, CLEO has made a significant contribution to our understanding of the tau lepton. With the approval of the symmetric and asymmetric B factories, our knowledge will continue to increase.