Studies In Tau Lepton Phenomenology

This thesis consists of several studies in tau lepton .phenomenology. The first study calculates decay rates of the tau proceeding through the weak vector current coupling to hadrons using published data on electron-positron annihilation into hadrons along with the conserved-vector-current (CVC) principle and assuming the tau to be an exact analogue of the electron. The second study considers a number of possible alternative multiplet assignments for the tau and possible accompanying neutral particles within the standard electroweak gauge theory. It is shown that most of the obvious alternatives to the standardmodel multiplet assignments can be ruled out. The final study considers the possibility that the tau and its accompanying neutrino both have spin 312. It is shown that this unlikely possibility is not cleanly ruled out by existing experimental data. A peculiar property of Rarita-Schwinger particles in the limit that their mass goes to zero is also discussed and placed in the context of the general theorems relating to massless particles.