In this work radiative corrections in the total hadronic decay rate of
the tau lepton and some moments of its differential distributions are
studied employing perturbative QCD and the operator product expansion
. We calculate quadratic quark mass corrections in the strange mass to
the decay rate ratio R-tau to the order O(alpha(s)(3)m(2)) and find t
hat they contribute appreciably to the Cabibbo-suppressed decay modes
of the tau lepton. Using the results of a recent experimental analysis
, we obtain m(s) (1 GeV) = 200 +/- 40(exp) +/- 30(th) MeV. (C) 1998 El
sevier Science B.V.