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 compare the particle flow in the event plane of three-jet qq¯g (quark-antiquark-gluon) events with the particle flow in radiative annihilation events qq¯γ (quark-antiquark-photon) for similar kinematic configurations. In the angular region between quark and antiquark jet, we find a significant decrease in particle density for qq¯g as compared to qq¯γ. This effect is predicted in QCD as a result of destructive interference between soft-gluon radiation from quark, antiquark, and hard gluon.
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The distribution of particles in three-jet events is compared with the predictions of three fragmentation models currently in use: the Lund string model, the Webber cluster model, and an independent fragmentation model. The Lund model and, to a certain extent, the Webber model provide reasonable descriptions of the data. The independent fragmentation model does not describe the distribution of particles at large angles with respect to the jet axes. The results provide evidence that the sources of hadrons are Lorentz boosted with respect to the overall c.m.
No description provided.
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