Search for lepton-flavor-violating τ → ℓ V0 decays at Belle

We have searched for neutrinoless τ lepton decays into ℓ and V0, where ℓ stands for an electron or muon, and V0 for a vector meson (φ{symbol}, ω, K* 0, over(K, ̄)* 0 or ρ0), using 543 fb-1 of data collected with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy e+ e- collider. No excess of signal events over the expected background has been observed, and we set upper limits on the branching fractions in the range (5.9 - 18) × 10-8 at the 90% confidence level. These upper limits are significantly more restrictive than our previous results for the ℓφ{symbol}, ℓ K* 0, ℓ over(K, ̄)* 0 and ℓ ρ0 modes. © 2008 Elsevier B.V.