Cross-sections and angular distributions for hadronic and lepton pair final states in e+e- collisions at a centre-of-mass energy near 189 GeV, measured with the OPAL detector at LEP, are presented and compared with the predictions of the Standard Model. The results are used to measure the energy dependence of the electromagnetic coupling constant alpha_em, and to place limits on new physics as described by four-fermion contact interactions or by the exchange of a new heavy particle such as a sneutrino in supersymmetric theories with R-parity violation. A search for the indirect effects of the gravitational interaction in extra dimensions on the mu+mu- and tau+tau- final states is also presented.
Hadronic cross section.
The cross sections for hadronic, and muon- and tau-pair production in the two sprime/s regions.
The cross sections for electron -pair production with various angular cuts.
We employ data taken by the JADE and OPAL experiments for an integrated QCD study in hadronic e+e- annihilations at c.m.s. energies ranging from 35 GeV through 189 GeV. The study is based on jet-multiplicity related observables. The observables are obtained to high jet resolution scales with the JADE, Durham, Cambridge and cone jet finders, and compared with the predictions of various QCD and Monte Carlo models. The strong coupling strength, alpha_s, is determined at each energy by fits of O(alpha_s^2) calculations, as well as matched O(alpha_s^2) and NLLA predictions, to the data. Matching schemes are compared, and the dependence of the results on the choice of the renormalization scale is investigated. The combination of the results using matched predictions gives alpha_s(MZ)=0.1187+{0.0034}-{0.0019}. The strong coupling is also obtained, at lower precision, from O(alpha_s^2) fits of the c.m.s. energy evolution of some of the observables. A qualitative comparison is made between the data and a recent MLLA prediction for mean jet multiplicities.
Overall result for ALPHAS at the Z0 mass from the combination of the ln R-matching results from the observables evolved using a three-loop running expression. The errors shown are total errors and contain all the statistics and systematics.
Weighted mean for ALPHAS at the Z0 mass determined from the energy evolutions of the mean values of the 2-jet cross sections obtained with the JADE and DURHAMschemes and the 3-jet fraction for the JADE, DURHAM and CAMBRIDGE schemes evaluted at a fixed YCUT.. The errors shown are total errors and contain all the statistics and systematics.
Combined results for ALPHA_S from fits of matched predicitions. The first systematic (DSYS) error is the experimental systematic, the second DSYS error isthe hadronization systematic and the third is the QCD scale error. The values of ALPHAS evolved to the Z0 mass using a three-loop evolution are also given.
We have studied hadronic events from e+e- annihilation data at centre-of-mass energies of sqrt{s}=172, 183 and 189 GeV. The total integrated luminosity of the three samples, measured with the OPAL detector, corresponds to 250 pb^-1. We present distributions of event shape variables, charged particle multiplicity and momentum, measured separately in the three data samples. From these we extract measurements of the strong coupling alpha_s, the mean charged particle multiplicity <nch> and the peak position xi_0 in the xi_p=ln(1/x_p) distribution. In general the data are described well by analytic QCD calculations and Monte Carlo models. Our measured values of alpha_s, <nch> and xi_0 are consistent with previous determinations at sqrt{s}=MZ.
Distribution of Thrust.
Distribution of Thrust Major.
Distribution of Thrust Minor.
We have studied hadronic events from e+e- annihilation data at centre-of-mass energies from 91 to 209 GeV. We present distributions of event shape observables and their moments at each energy and compare with QCD Monte Carlo models. From the event shape distributions we extract the strong coupling alpha_s and test its evolution with energy scale. The results are consistent with the running of alpha_s expected from QCD. Combining all data, the value of alpha_s(M_Z) is determined to be alpha_s(M_Z) = 0.1191 +- 0.0005 (stat.) +- 0.0010 (expt.) +- 0.0011 (hadr.) +- 0.0044 (theo.). The energy evolution of the moments is also used to determine a value of alpha_s with slightly larger errors: alpha_s(M_Z) = 0.1223 +- 0.0005 (stat.) +- 0.0014 (expt.) +- 0.0016 (hadr.) +0.0054 -0.0036 (theo.).
Measured normalized differential distribution for 1-THRUST.
Measured normalized differential distribution for HEAVY-JET-MASS.
Measured normalized differential distribution for C-PARAMETER.
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