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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Measurement of the semileptonic decaysB¯→Dτ−ν¯τandB¯→D*τ−ν¯τ

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We present measurements of the semileptonic decays B{sup -}{yields}D{sup 0}{tau}{sup -}{nu}{sub {tau}}, B{sup -}{yields}D*{sup 0}{tau}{sup -}{nu}{sub {tau}}, B{sup 0}{yields}D{sup +}{tau}{sup -}{nu}{sub {tau}}, and B{sup 0}{yields}D*{sup +}{tau}{sup -}{nu}{sub {tau}}, which are sensitive to non-standard model amplitudes in certain scenarios. The data sample consists of 232x10{sup 6} {upsilon}(4S){yields}BB decays collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II e{sup +}e{sup -} collider. We select events with a D or D* meson and a light lepton (l=e or {mu}) recoiling against a fully reconstructed B meson. We perform a fit to the joint distribution of lepton momentum and missing mass squared to distinguish signal B{yields}D{sup (*)}{tau}{sup -}{nu}{sub {tau}}({tau}{sup -}{yields}l{sup -}{nu}{sub l}{nu}{sub {tau}}) events from the backgrounds, predominantly B{yields}D{sup (*)}l{sup -}{nu}{sub l}. We measure the branching-fraction ratios R(D){identical_to}B(B{yields}D{tau}{sup -}{nu}{sub {tau}})/B(B{yields}Dl{sup -}{nu}{sub l}) and R(D{sup *}){identical_to}B(B{yields}D*{tau}{sup -}{nu}{sub {tau}})/B(B{yields}D*l{sup -}{nu}{sub l}) and, from a combined fit to B{sup -} and B{sup 0} channels, obtain the results R(D)=(41.6{+-}11.7{+-}5.2)% and R(D*)=(29.7{+-}5.6{+-}1.8)%, where the uncertainties are statistical and systematic. Normalizing to measured B{sup -}{yields}D{sup (*)0}l{sup -}{nu}{sub l} branching fractions, we obtain B(B{yields}D{tau}{sup -}{nu}{sub {tau}})=(0.86{+-}0.24{+-}0.11{+-}0.06)% and B(B{yields}D*{tau}{sup -}{nu}{sub {tau}})=(1.62{+-}0.31{+-}0.10{+-}0.05)%, where the additional third uncertainty is from the normalization mode. We also present, for the first time, distributions of the lepton momentum,more » |p{sub l}{sup *}|, and the squared momentum transfer, q{sup 2}.« less