Measurement of the Topological Branching Fractions of the τ Lepton

We report new and precise measurements of the decay branching fractions of the τ lepton to one and three charged particles. The data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 176 pb^-1, were collected by the high resolution spectrometer HRS at the e⁺e^- storage ring PEP at SLAC operated at √s=29 GeV. The fractions of τ decays into one and three charged particles are 0.869±{}0.002±{}0.003 and 0.130±{}0.002±{}0.003, respectively.