The production rates of D*+-, Ds*+-, D+-, D0 / D0bar, Ds+, and Lambda_c in Z to ccbar decays are measured using the LEP I data sample recorded by the ALEPH detector. The fractional energy spectrum of the D*+- is well described as the sum of three contributions: charm hadronisation, b hadron decays and gluon splitting into a pair of heavy quarks. The probability for a c quark to hadronise into a D*+ is found to be f(c to D*+) = 0.233 +- 0.010 (stat.) +- 0.011 (syst.). The average fraction of the beam energy carried by D*+- mesons in Z to cc events is measured to be < X_E (D*+-) >_cc = 0.4878 +- 0.0046 (stat.) +- 0.0061 (syst.). The D*+- energy and the hemisphere mass imbalance distributions are simultaneously used to measure the fraction of hadronic Z decays in which a gluon splits to a cc pair: n_{gluon to cc} = (3.23 +- 0.48 (stat.) +- 0.53 (syst.) %. The ratio of the Vector/(Vector+Pseudoscalar) production rates in charmed mesons is found to be P_V = 0.595 +- 0.045. The fractional decay width of the Z into cc pairs is determined from the sum of the production rates for various weakly decaying charmed states to be Rc = 0.1738 +- 0.0047 (stat.) +- 0.0116 (syst.).
Previously published and as yet unpublished QCD results obtained with the ALEPH detector at LEP1 are presented. The unprecedented statistics allows detailed studies of both perturbative and non-perturbative aspects of strong interactions to be carried out using hadronic Z and tau decays. The studies presented include precise determinations of the strong coupling constant, tests of its flavour independence, tests of the SU(3) gauge structure of QCD, study of coherence effects, and measurements of single-particle inclusive distributions and two-particle correlations for many identified baryons and mesons.
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