Measurement of the strong coupling alpha_s from the three-jet rate in e+e- -annihilation using JADE data

Abstract

We present a measurement of the strong coupling α S using the three-jet rate measured with the Durham algorithm in e + e − -annihilation using data of the JADE experiment at centre-of-mass energies between 14 and 44 GeV. Recent theoretical improvements provide predictions of the three-jet rate in e + e − -annihilation at nextto-next-to-leading order. In this paper a measurement of the three-jet rate is used to determine the strong coupling α S from a comparison to next-to-next-to-leading order predictions matched with next-to-leading logarithmic approximations and yields a value for the strong coupling α S (M Z 0 ) = 0.1199 ± 0.0010(stat.) ± 0.0021(exp.) ± 0.0054(had.) ± 0.0007(theo.), consistent with the world average. This paper is dedicated to the memory of Joachim Heintze, a founding member of the JADE collaboration whose essential contributions to JADE and the field are imperishable.