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.
A new measurement of αs is obtained from the distributions in thrust, heavy jet mass, energy-energy correlation and two recently introduced jet broadening variables following a method proposed by Cata
Thrust distribution corrected for detector acceptance and initial state photon radiation.
Heavy jet mass (RHO) distribution (THRUST definition) corrected for detect or acceptance and initial state photon radiation.
Heavy jet mass (RHOM) distribution (MASS definition) corrected for detectoracceptance and initial state photon radiation.
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