PROBLEMS WITH EXTRACTING M(S) FROM FLAVOR BREAKING IN HADRONIC TAU-DECAYS - ART. NO. 093015

A numerical error is pointed out in the existing expression for the O( alpha(s)(2)) longitudinal component of the squared-mass (D=2) contribu tion to the hadronic tau decay rate. The corrected version is found to be such that, to O(alpha(s)(2)) each term in the resulting series is larger than the previous one, hence ruling out the direct use of flavo r breaking in hadronic tau decays as a means of extracting the strange quark mass. An alternate approach, in which one uses the model spectr al functions previously developed for the strangeness-changing scalar channel (and employed in alternate sum rule analyses of m(s)) as input to the tau decay analysis, is shown to provide mutual consistency che cks for the two different methods. The results for m(s) implied by tau decay data and the existing model spectral function are also presente d. [S0556-2821(98)03921-6].