Data on jet masses, resulting from the decomposition ofe+e− hadronic final states into two hemispheres, are presented at centre of mass energies between 12 and 43.5 GeV. Comparisons are made with bareO(αs2) QCD predictions as well as with QCD based fragmentation models. Values for αs and\(\Lambda _{\overline {MS} } \) are determined, both with and without hadronization effects included. Upper and lower limits for\(\Lambda _{\overline {MS} } \) independent of fragmentation models have been determined to be 0.480±0.025 GeV and 0.047±0.007 GeV respectively.

The production of electrons by bottom and charm hadrons has been studied in e + e − annihilation at 34.6 GeV center of mass energy. It is observed that the b quark fragmentation function is peaked at large values of the scaling variable z with 〈 z b 〉 = 0.84 +0.15 + 0.15 −0.10 − 0.11 . For c quarks 〈 z c 〉 = 0.57 +0.10 + 0.05 −0.09 − 0.06 is observed. A forward-backward charge asymmetry of A = −0.25 ± 0.22 was measured in b production.

Production of the p p π + π − final state by two-photon scattering was observed. The cross section for γγ→p p π + π − was determined assuming phase space production. No evidence was found for the production or formation of resonances. Upper limits are given for Λ and Δ pair production, for production of p p ϱ 0 and for the two-photon excitation of c c bound states.

Production of the F meson by e + e − annihilation at high energies has been obsrved in the ϕπ final state with a mass of 1.975 ± 0.009 ± 0.010 GeV and a width consistent with the mass resolution. The yield of F production times branching ratio relative to μ pair production is R F ( x ⩾ 0.3) B (F ± → ϕπ ± ) = 0.061 ± 0.012 ± 0.018.

D ∗± production via e + e − → D ∗± X was studied at CM energies near 34 GeV. The charged particles produced in the hemisphere opposite to that of the D ∗ were used to investigate the fragmentation of charm jets. All spectra studied show a close similarity between the charm jet and the average jet obtained by summing over all quark flavours. The spectra of particles produced in the D ∗ hemisphere were used to study separately first rank and higher rank fragmentation.

We have studied at CM energies of 14, 22 and 30–36.7 GeV e + e − annihilation events in which the hadronic final state contains both a proton and an antiproton in the momentum range 1.0 < p < GeV/ c . We find that such pairs are produced predominantly in the same jet and conclude that baryon-antibaryon production is dominated by a mechanism involving local compensation of baryon number.

e + e − annihilation into hadrons was studied at CM energies between 39.8 and 45.2 GeV and a search was made for new heavy quarks. No evidence was found for the existence of a narrow state excluding the possible existence of the lowest vector toponium state in this mass range. A search for continuum production of heavy quarks led to lower mass limits for new quarks of 22.0 GeV ( e Q = 2 3 ) and 21.0 GeV ( e Q = 1 3 ). Quarks are found to be pointlike, the corresponding mass parameter being larger than 288 GeV. A fit of the QCD and the electroweak contributions to R = σ tot / σ μμ yielded sin 2 θ W = 0.30 −0.07 +0.23 .

The production of prompt muons ine+e− annihilation has been studied at centre of mass energies near 34.5 GeV. The measured semi-muonic branching ratios ofb andc quarks areB(b»Xμv) =0.117±0.028±0.01 andB(c→Xμv)=0.082 ±0.012a−0.01+0.02. The fragmentation functions of heavy quarks are hard, <zb>=0.85a−0.12–0.07+0.10+0.02 and <zc> =0.77a−0.07–0.11+0.05+0.03. Limits have been set on flavour changing neutral current decays:B(b→Xµ+µ−) <0.02 andB(b→Xµ+µ− (95% confidence level).

We present the general properties of jets produced bye+e− annihilation. Their production and fragmentation characteristics have been studied with charged particles for c.m. energies between 12 and 43 GeV. In this energy rangee+e− annihilation into hadrons is dominated by pair production of the five quarksu, d, s, c andb. In addition, hard gluon bremsstrahlung effects which are invisible at low energies become prominent at the high energies. The observed multiplicity distributions deviate from a Poisson distribution. The multiplicity distributions for the overall event as well as for each event hemisphere satisfy KNO scaling to within ∼20%. The distributions ofxp=2p/W are presented; scale breaking is observed at the level of 25%. The quantityxpdδ/dxp is compared with multigluon emission calculations which predict a Gaussian distribution in terms of ln(1/x). The observed energy dependence of the maximum of the distributions is in qualitative agreement with the calculations. Particle production is analysed with respect to the jet axis and longitudinal and transverse momentum spectra are presented. The angular distribution of the jet axis strongly supports the idea of predominant spin 1/2 quark pair production. The particle distributions with respect to the event plane show clearly the growing importance of planar events with increasing c.m. energies. They also exclude the presence of heavy quark production,e+e−→Q\(\bar Q\) for quark masses up to 5<mQ<20.3 GeV (|eQ|=2/3) and 7<mQ<19 GeV (|eQ|=1/3). The comparison of 1/σtotdδ/dpT measured at 14, 22 and 34 GeV suggests that hard gluon bremsstrahlung contributes mainly to transverse momenta larger than 0.5 GeV/c. The rapidity distribution forW≧22 GeV shows an enhancement away fromy=0 which corresponds to an increase in yield of 10–15% compared to the centre region (y=0). The enhancement probably results from heavy quark production and gluon bremsstrahlung. The particle flux around the jet axis shows with increasing c.m. energy a rapidly growing number of particles collimated around the jet axis, while at large angles to the jet axis almost noW dependence is observed. For fixed longitudinal momentump‖ approximate “fan invariance” is seen: The shape of the angular distribution around the jet axis is almost independent ofW. The collimation depends strongly onp‖. For smallp‖,p‖<0.2 GeV/c, isotropy is observed. With increasingp‖ the particles tend to be emitted closer and closer to the jet axis.