Measurement of the Strong Coupling Constant 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 using four-jet rates in e+e- annihilation data from the JADE experiment, comparing experimental results with advanced QCD calculations to test the theory's predictions.

Contribution

It provides a precise measurement of alpha_S at the Z boson mass scale using four-jet rates, incorporating NLO and NLLA calculations, and confirms consistency with the world average.

Findings

Measured alpha_S(M_Z) = 0.1169 +/- 0.0026 (total error)

Results agree with the world average of alpha_S

Demonstrated the effectiveness of NLO + NLLA calculations in jet analysis.

Abstract

Data from e+e- annihilation into hadrons collected by the JADE experiment at centre-of-mass energies between 14 GeV and 44 GeV were used to study the four-jet rate as a function of the Durham algorithm's resolution parameter y_cut. The four-jet rate was compared to a QCD NLO order calculations including NLLA resummation of large logarithms. The strong coupling constant measured from the four-jet rate is alpha_S(M_Z) = 0.1169 +/- 0.0004 (stat) +/- 0.0012 (expt) +/- 0.0021 (had) +/- 0.0007 (theo), alpha_S(M_Z) = 0.1169 +/- 0.0026 (total error) in agreement with the world average.