The Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix is the unitary change of basis between down-type quark mass eigenstates and the combinations appearing in the weak charged current. In particular, and production carry and . Exclusive tau lepton decays into a charged pseudoscalar meson giveup to small radiative corrections. The pseudoscalar decay constants specify the vacuum-to-meson axial-current matrix elements, .
The observed branching fraction ratio is , and the kinematic factor is approximately . Hence the directly determined combination isWith an independent, representative lattice input , this becomes , close to the source's rounded expectation . Conversely that expectation and the hadronic input predict a branching fraction ratio near . Without the decay-constant input the table does not isolate a pure Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix ratio. Setting would give approximately , demonstrating the importance of flavor symmetry breaking.[ref]
Leptonic Decays of Charged Pseudoscalar Mesons in the 2024 Review of Particle Physics. Sections 72.1–72.2, axial-current definition, radiative corrections and lattice decay-constant ratios