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
Distribution of Thrust.
Distribution of Thrust Major.
Distribution of Thrust Minor.
We have measured inclusive distributions for charged particles in hadronic decays of the Z boson. The variables chosen for study were charged-particle multiplicity, scaled momentum, and momenta transverse to the sphericity axes. The distributions have been corrected for detector effects and are compared with data from e+e− annihilation at lower energies and with the predictions of several QCD-based models. The data are in reasonable agreement with expectations.
Mean corrected charged particle multiplicity.
Corrected charged particle X distributions. Errors are statistical and systematic combined.
Corrected charged particle PTIN distributions. Errors are statistical and systematic combined.