Measurement of the Strong Coupling alpha_s from the Four-Jet Rate in e+e- Annihilation using JADE data

TL;DR

This paper measures the strong coupling constant alpha_s by analyzing four-jet production rates in electron-positron collisions at energies between 14 and 44 GeV, comparing data with advanced QCD calculations.

Contribution

It provides a precise measurement of alpha_s using four-jet rates and next-to-leading order QCD calculations with resummation, extending previous analyses with JADE data.

Findings

Measured alpha_s(MZ)=0.1159 with uncertainties

Results agree with the world average of alpha_s

Validated QCD predictions for four-jet production

Abstract

Data from e+e- annihilation into hadrons collected by the JADE experiment at centre-of-mass energies between 14 GeV and 44 GeV are used to study the four-jet event production rate as a function of the Durham jet algorithm's resolution parameter ycut. The four-jet rate is compared to QCD next-to-leading order calculations including resummation of large logarithms in the next-to-leading logarithmic approximation. The strong coupling measured from the four-jet rate is as(MZ)=0.1159+-0.0004(stat)+-0.0012(expt)+-0.0024(had)+-0.0007(theo) in agreement with the world average.