Search for φ mesons in τ lepton decay

We report results from a direct search for ${\tau }^{-}\to \phi h^{-}{\nu }_{\tau }{(h}^{-}={\pi }^{-}or\hspace{0.5em}{K}^{-})$ using 3.1 ${\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$ of data collected with the CLEO II detector. We find model-dependent upper limits on the branching fractions in the range $\mathcal{B}({\tau }^{-}\to \phi {\pi }^{-}{\nu }_{\tau })<(1.2\mathrm{}-2.0)\times {10}^{-4}$ and $\mathcal{B}({\tau }^{-}\to \phi K^{-}{\nu }_{\tau })<(5.4\mathrm{}-6.7)\times {10}^{-5}$ at 90% confidence level.