Infrared and collinear safe event shape distributions and their mean values are determined in e+e- collisions at centre-of-mass energies between 45 and 202 GeV. A phenomenological analysis based on power correction models including hadron mass effects for both differential distributions and mean values is presented. Using power corrections, alpha_s is extracted from the mean values and shapes. In an alternative approach, renormalisation group invariance (RGI) is used as an explicit constraint, leading to a consistent description of mean values without the need for sizeable power corrections. The QCD beta-function is precisely measured using this approach. From the DELPHI data on Thrust, including data from low energy experiments, one finds beta_0 = 7.86 +/- 0.32 for the one loop coefficient of the beta-function or, assuming QCD, n_f = 4.75 +/- 0.44 for the number of active flavours. These values agree well with the QCD expectation of beta_0=7.67 and n_f=5. A direct measurement of the full logarithmic energy slope excludes light gluinos with a mass below 5 GeV.
A study of the fragmentation properties of charm and bottom quarks intoD mesons is presented. From 263 700Z0 hadronic decays collected in 1991 with the DELPHI detector at the LEP collider,D0,D+ andD*+ are reconstructed in the modesK−π+,K−π+K+ andD0π+ followed byD0→K−π+, respectively. The fractional decay widths\(\Gamma {{(Z^0\to {D \mathord{\left/ {\vphantom {D {\bar D}}} \right. \kern-\nulldelimiterspace} {\bar D}}X)} \mathord{\left/ {\vphantom {{(Z^0\to {D \mathord{\left/ {\vphantom {D {\bar D}}} \right. \kern-\nulldelimiterspace} {\bar D}}X)} {\Gamma _h }}} \right. \kern-\nulldelimiterspace} {\Gamma _h }}\) are determined, and first results are presented for the production ofD mesons from\(c\bar c\) and\(b\bar b\) events separately. The average energy fraction ofD*± in charm quark fragmentation is found to be 〈XE(D*)〉c=0.487±0.015 (stat)±0.005 (sys.). Assuming that the fraction ofDs and charm-baryons produced at LEP is similar to that around 10 GeV, theZ0 partial width into charm quark pairs is determined to beΓc/Γh=0.187±0.031 (stat)±0.023 (sys). The probability for ab quark to fragment into\(\bar B_s \) orb-baryons is inferred to be 0.268±0.094 (stat)±0.100 (sys) from the measured probability that it fragments into a\(\bar B^0 \) orB−.
A study of the production of strange octet and decuplet baryons in hadronic decays of the Z recorded by the DELPHI detector at LEP is presented. This includes the first measurement of the∑± average multiplicity. The total and differential cross sections, the event topology and the baryon-antibaryon correlations are compared with current hadronization models.
Infrared and collinear safe event shape distributions and their mean values are determined using the data taken at five different centre of mass energies above M Z with the DELPHI detector at LEP. From the event shapes, the strong coupling α s is extracted in O ( α s 2 ), NLLA and a combined scheme using hadronisation corrections evaluated with fragmentation model generators as well as using an analytical power ansatz. Comparing these measurements to those obtained at M Z , the energy dependence (running) of α s is accessible. The logarithmic energy slope of the inverse strong coupling is measured to be d α −1 s d log (E cm ) =1.39±0.34( stat )±0.17( syst ) , in good agreement with the QCD expectation of 1.27.
Forum