Measurement of the Total Hadronic Cross Section in e+e- Annihilations below 10.56 GeV

TL;DR

This paper reports precise measurements of the total hadronic cross section in electron-positron annihilations at energies below 10.56 GeV, providing key data for understanding strong interactions.

Contribution

First precise determination of R ratio in e+e- annihilations between 6.964 and 10.538 GeV with 2% accuracy using the CLEO III detector.

Findings

Measured R values with 2% uncertainty

Extended the energy range of hadronic cross section data

Provided data for testing QCD predictions

Abstract

Using the CLEO III detector, we measure absolute cross sections for e+e- --> hadrons at seven center-of-mass energies between 6.964 and 10.538 GeV. The values of R, the ratio of hadronic and muon pair production cross sections, are determined within 2% total r.m.s. uncertainty.