Heavy-Neutrino Effects on tau-Lepton Decays

Minimal extensions of the Standard Model that are motivated by grand unified theories or superstring models with an E_6 symmetry can naturally predict heavy neutrinos of Dirac or Majorana nature. Such heavy neutral leptons violate the de- coupling theorem at the one-loop electroweak order and hence offer a unique chance for possible lepton-flavour decays of the tau lepton, e.g. tau -> eee or tau -> mu mu mu, to be seen in LEP experiments. We analyze such decays in models with three and four generations.