We have analyzed 1113 events of the reaction e + e − → hadrons at CM energies of 12 and 30 GeV in order to make a detailed comparison with QCD. Perturbative effects can be well separated from effects depending on the quark and gluon fragmentation parameters to yield a reliable measurement of the coupling constant α S . At 30 GeV, the result is α S = 0.17 ± 0.02 (statistical) ± 0.03 (systematic). QCD model predictions, using the fragmentation parameters determined along with α S , agree with both gross properties of the final states and with detailed features of the three-jet states.
Transverse particle momenta have been measured ine+e− annihilation into hadrons at c.m. energies between 9.4 and 31.6 GeV. The data are fully corrected for detector effects and radiation in the initial state. A comparison is made with recent QCD calculations.
In this paper, results are presented from a study of the hadronic final states in e+e− annihilation at 29 GeV. The data were obtained with the High Resolution Spectrometer (HRS) at the SLAC PEP e+e− colliding-beam facility. The results are based on 6342 selected events corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.6 pb−1. The distributions of the events in sphericity (S), thrust (T), and aplanarity (A) are given and compared to other e+e− data in the same energy range. We measure 〈S〉=0.130±0.003±0.010 and 〈1-T〉=0.100±0.002. The sphericity distribution is compared to sphericity measurements made for beam jets in hadronic collisions as well as jets studied in neutrino scattering. The data sample is further reduced to 4371 events with the two-jet selections, S≤0.25 and A≤0.1. The single-particle distributions in the longitudinal and transverse directions are given. For low values of the momentum fraction (z=2p/W), the invariant distribution shows a maximum at z∼0.06, consistent with a QCD expectation. The data at high Feynman x (xF) show distribution consistent with being dominated by a (1-xf)2 variation for the leading quark-meson transition. The rapidity distribution shows a shallow central minimum with a height (1/NevdNh/dY‖Y=0=2.3±0.02±0.07. The mean charged multiplicity is measured to be 〈nch〉=13.1±0.05±0.6. The mean transverse momentum relative to the thrust axis 〈pT〉 rises as a function of z to a value of 0.70±0.02 GeV/c for z≳0.3. The distributions are compared to those measured in other reactions.
We present a study of jet multiplicities based on 37 000 hadronic Z 0 boson decays. From this data we determine the strong coupling constant α s =0.115±0.005 ( exp .) −0.010 +0.012 (theor.) to second order QCD at √ s =91.22GeV.
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.
We have studied hadronic events produced at LEP at a centre-of-mass energy of 161 GeV. We present distributions of event shape variables, jet rates, charged particle momentum spectra and multiplicities. We determine the strong coupling strength to be αs(161 GeV) = 0.101±0.005(stat.)±0.007(syst.), the mean charged particle multiplicity to be 〈nch〉(161 GeV) = 24.46 ± 0.45(stat.) ± 0.44(syst.) and the position of the peak in the ξp = ln(1/xp) distribution to be ξ0(161 GeV) = 4.00 ±0.03(stat.)±0.04(syst.). These results are compared to data taken at lower centre-of-mass energies and to analytic QCD or Monte Carlo predictions. Our measured value of αs(161 GeV) is consistent with other measurements of αs. Within the current statistical and systematic uncertainties, the PYTHIA, HERWIG and ARIADNE QCD Monte Carlo models and analytic calculations are in overall agreement with our measurements. The COJETS QCD Monte Carlo is in general agreement with the data for momentum weighted distributions like Thrust, but predicts a significantly larger charged particle multiplicity than is observed experimentally.
The production rates and the inclusive cross sections of the isovector meson${\rm \pi^0}$, the isoscalar mesons$\eta$and
The correlated production of Lambda and Lambdabar baryons has been studied using 4.3 million multihadronic Zo decays recorded with the OPAL detector at LEP. Di-lambda pairs were investigated in the full data sample and for the first time also in 2-jet and 3-jet events selected with the k_t algorithm. The distributions of rapidity differences from correlated Lambda-Lambdabar pairs exhibit short-range, local correlations and prove to be a sensitive tool to test models, particularly for 2-jet events. The JETSET model describes the data best but some extra parameter tuning is needed to improve agreement with the experimental results in the rates and the rapidity spectra simultaneously. The recently developed modification of JETSET, the MOdified Popcorn Scenarium (MOPS), and also HERWIG do not give satisfactory results. This study of di-lambda production in 2- and 3-jet events supports the short-range compensation of quantum numbers.
In this Report, QCD results obtained from a study of hadronic event structure in high energy e^+e^- interactions with the L3 detector are presented. The operation of the LEP collider at many different collision energies from 91 GeV to 209 GeV offers a unique opportunity to test QCD by measuring the energy dependence of different observables. The main results concern the measurement of the strong coupling constant, \alpha_s, from hadronic event shapes and the study of effects of soft gluon coherence through charged particle multiplicity and momentum distributions.
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.