We observe a resonancelike structure in the total cross section for hadron production by e+e− colliding beams at a mass of 4414 ± 7 MeV having a total width Γ=33±10 MeV. From the area under this resonance, we deduce the partial width to electron pairs to be Γee=440±140 eV. Further structure of comparable width is present near 4.1 GeV.
The total cross section for hadron production by e+e− annihilation has been measured at center-of-mass energies between 2.4 and 5.0 GeV. Aside from the very narrow resonances ψ(3105) and ψ(3695), the cross section varies between 32 and 17 nb over this region with structure in the vicinity of 4.1 GeV.
Measurements are presented of the inclusive cross section for K ∗ (892) ± production in hadronic decays of the Z 0 using a sample of about half a million events recorded with the OPAL experiment at LEP. Charged K ∗ mesons are reconstructed in the decay channel K 0 S π ± . A mean rate of 0.72±0.02±0.08 K ∗ mesons per hadronic event is found. Comparison of the results with predictions of the JETSET and HERWIG models shows that JETSET overestimates the K ∗± production cross section while HERWIG is consistent with the data.
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 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.
The production of neutral kaons in e+e− annihilation at centre-of-mass energies in the region of the Z0 mass and their Bose-Einstein correlations are investigated with the OPAL detector at LEP. A total of about 1.26×106 Z0 hadronic decay events are used in the analysis. The production rate of K0 mesons is found to be 1.99±0.01±0.04 per hadronic event, where the first error is statistical and the second systematic. Both the rate and the differential cross section for K0 production are compared to the predictions of Monte Carlo generators. This comparison indicates that the fragmentation is too soft in bothJetset andHerwig. Bose-Einstein correlations in Ks0Ks0 pairs are measured through the quantityQ, the four momentum difference of the pair. A threshold enhancement is observed in Ks0Ks0 pairs originating from a mixed sample of\(K^0 \bar K^0\) and K0K0 (\(\bar K^0 \bar K^0\)) pairs. For the strength of the effect and for the radius of the emitting source we find values of λ=1.14±0.23±0.32 andR0=(0.76±0.10±0.11) fm respectively. The first error is statistical and the second systematic.
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.
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 observe a resonance in the total cross section for hadron production in e+e− annihilation at a mass of 3772±6 MeV/c2 having a total width of 28±5 MeV/c2 and a partial width to electron pairs of 370±90 eV/c2.
A precise measurement of the ratio R of the total cross section e+e−→hadrons to the pointlike cross section e+e−→μ+μ− at a center-of-mass energy of 29.0 GeV is presented. The data were taken with the upgraded Mark II detector at the SLAC storage ring PEP. The result is R=3.92±0.05±0.09. The luminosity has been determined with three independent luminosity monitors measuring Bhabha scattering at different angular intervals. Recent calculations of higher-order QED radiative corrections are used to estimate the systematic error due to missing higher-order radiative corrections in the Monte Carlo event generators.