Improved Limits on Lepton-Flavor-Violating tau Decays to l phi, l rho, lK*, and l(K)over-bar*

Abstract

We search for the neutrinoless, lepton-flavor-violating tau decays tau(-)-> l(-) V-0, where l is an electron or muon and V-0 is a vector meson reconstructed as phi -> K+ K-, rho -> pi(+) pi(-), K* -> K+ pi(-), (K) over bar*-> K- pi(+). The analysis has been performed using 451 fb(-1) of data collected at an e(+) e(-) center-of-mass energy near 10.58 GeV with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II storage rings. The number of events found in the data is compatible with the background expectation, and upper limits on the branching fractions are set in the range (2.6-19) x 10(-8) at the 90% confidence level.