An updated determination of α_s from tau decays

Abstract

Employing our previous framework to treat non-perturbative effects self-consistently, including duality violations, we update the determination of the strong coupling, α_s, using a modified version of the 1998 OPAL data, updated to reflect current values of exclusive mode hadronic τdecay branching fractions. Our best n_f=3 values from the updated OPAL data are α_s(m^2_τ)=0.325+-0.018 and α_s(m^2_τ)=0.347+-0.025 in fixed-order and contour-improved perturbation theory, respectively. To account for non-perturbative effects, non-linear, multi-parameter fits are necessary. We have, therefore, investigated the posterior probability distribution of the model parameters underlying our fits in more detail. We find that OPAL data alone provide only weak constraints on some of the parameters needed to model duality violations, especially in the case of fits involving axial vector channel data, making additional prior assumptions on the expected size of these parameters necessary at present. We provide evidence that this situation could be greatly improved if hadronic spectral functions based on the high-statistics BaBar and Belle data were to be made available.

26 pages, 6 figures