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.
The QED processes e^+ e^- -> e^+ e^- \mu^+ \mu^- and e^+ e^- -> e^+ e^- \tau^+ \tau^- are studied with the L3 detector at LEP using an untagged data sample collected at centre-of-mass energies 161 GeV < sqrt{s} < 209 GeV. The tau-pairs are observed through the associated decay of one tau into e\nu\nu and the other into \pi\pi\nu . The cross sections are measured as a function of sqrt{s}. For muon pairs, the cross section of the \gamma\gamma -> \mu^+\mu^- process is also measured as a function of the two-photon centre-of-mass energy for 3 GeV < W_{\gamma\gamma} < 40 GeV. Good agreement is found between these measurements and the O(\alpha^4) QED expectations. In addition, limits on the anomalous magnetic and electric dipole moments of the tau lepton are extracted.
We present a study of the inclusive ω and η′ production based on 3.1 million hadronic Z decays recorded with the L3 detector at LEP during 1991–1994. The production rates per hadronic Z decay have been measured to be 1.17±0.17 ω mesons and 0.25±0.04 η′ mesons. The production rates and the differential cross sections have been compared with predictions of the JETSET and the HERWIG Monte Carlo models. We have observed that the differential cross sections can be described by an analytical quantum chromodynamics calculation.
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.
We present a study of the inclusive η production based on 300 000 hadronic Z 0 decays. The measured inclusive momentum distribution can be reproduced by parton shower Monte Carlo programs and also by an analytical QCD calculation. Comparing our results with low energy e + e − data, we find that QCD describes both the shape and the energy evolution of the η spectrum. The comparison of η production rates in quark- and gluon-enriched jet samples does not show statistically significant evidence for more abundant production of η mesons in gluon fragmentation.
The structure of hadronic events fromZ0 decay is studied by measuring event shape variables, factorial moments, and the energy flow distribution. The distributions, after correction for detector effects and initial and final state radiation, are compared with the predictions of different QCD Monte Carlo programs with optimized parameter values. These Monte Carlo programs use either the second order matrix element or the parton shower evolution for the perturbative QCD calculations and use the string, the cluster, or the independent fragmentation model for hadronization. Both parton shower andO(α2s matrix element based models with string fragmentation describe the data well. The predictions of the model based on parton shower and cluster fragmentation are also in good agreement with the data. The model with independent fragmentation gives a poor description of the energy flow distribution. The predicted energy evolutions for the mean values of thrust, sphericity, aplanarity, and charge multiplicity are compared with the data measured at different center-of-mass energies. The parton shower based models with string or cluster fragmentation are found to describe the energy dependences well while the model based on theO(α2s calculation fails to reproduce the energy dependences of these mean values.
We present a study of the inclusive production of π 0 , η, K s 0 and Λ based on 929,000 hadronic Z decays recorded with the L3 detector at LEP. The measured inclusive momentum distributions have been compared with predictions from parton shower models as well as an analytical Quantum Chromodynamics calculation. Comparing to low energy e + e - data, we find that QCD describes the energy evolution of the hadron spectrum.
A new measurement of the rare, doubly radiative decay eta->pi^0 gamma gamma was conducted with the Crystal Ball and TAPS multiphoton spectrometers together with the photon tagging facility at the Mainz Microtron MAMI. New data on the dependence of the partial decay width, Gamma(eta->pi^0 gamma gamma), on the two-photon invariant mass squared, m^2(gamma gamma), as well as a new, more precise value for the decay width, Gamma(eta->pi^0 gamma gamma) = (0.33+/-0.03_tot) eV, are based on analysis of 1.2 x 10^3 eta->pi^0 gamma gamma decays from a total of 6 x 10^7 eta mesons produced in the gamma p -> eta p reaction. The present results for dGamma(eta->pi^0 gamma gamma)/dm^2(gamma gamma) are in good agreement with previous measurements and recent theoretical calculations for this dependence.
We have measured pi+pi- and K+K- production in two-photon collisions using 87.7 /fb of data collected with the Belle detector at the asymmetric energy e+e- collider KEKB. The cross sections are measured to high precision in the two-photon center-of-mass energy (W) range between 2.4 GeV < W < 4.1 GeV and angular region |cos theta^{*}| < 0.6. The cross section ratio sigma(gammagamma->K+K-)/sigma(gammagamma->pi+pi-) is measured to be 0.89 +- 0.04(stat) +- 0.15(syst) in the range of 3.0 GeV < W < 4.1 GeV, where the ratio is energy independent. We observe a sin^{-4} theta^{*} behavior of the cross section in the same W range. Production of chi_{c0} and chi_{c2} mesons is observed in both gammagamma -> pi+pi- and gammagamma -> K+K- modes.
Measurements of the tau lepton polarization and forward-backward polarization asymmetry near the Z resonance using the OPAL detector are described. The measurements are based on analyses of tau -> e nu_e nu_tau, tau -> mu nu_mu nu_tau, tau -> pi nu_tau, tau -> rho nu_tau and tau -> a1 nu_tau decays from a sample of 144810 e+e- -> tau+ tau- candidates corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 151 pb-1. Assuming that the tau lepton decays according to V-A theory, we measure the average tau polarization near Ecm = MZ to be <Ptau> = (-14.10 +/- 0.73 +/- 0.55)% and the tau polarization forward-backward asymmetry to be Afb = (-10.55 +/- 0.76 +/- 0.25)%, where the first error is statistical and the second systematic. Taking into account the small effects of the photon propagator, photon-Z interference and photonic radiative corrections, these results can be expressed in terms of the lepton neutral current asymmetry parameters: Atau = 0.1456 +/- 0.0076 +/- 0.0057, Ae = 0.1454 +/- 0.0108 +/- 0.0036. These measurements are consistent with the hypothesis of lepton universality and combine to give Al = 0.1455 +/- 0.0073. Within the context of the Standard Model this combined result corresponds to sin^2(theta)(lept,effective) = 0.23172 +/- 0.00092. Combing these results with those from the other OPAL neutral current measurements yields a value of sin^2(theta)(lept,effective) = 0.23211 +/- 0.00068.
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