Decay Rates, Structure Functions and New Physics Effects in Hadronic Tau Decays

Hadronic decays rates of the $\tau$ lepton into multi meson final states are presented. The structure of the hadronic matrix elements for various decay modes is discussed. The formalism of structure functions allows for a detailed test of these matrix elements. Various correlations are discussed which are sensitive to possible CP violation and new physics effects in the decay modes.