Charged particle multiplicity in three-jet events and two-gluon systems

Abstract

Abstract.

The charged particle multiplicity in hadronic three-jet events from Z decays is investigated. The topology dependence of the event multiplicity is found to be well described by a modified leading logarithmic prediction. A parameter fit of the prediction to the data yields a measurement of the colour factor ratio C_A/C_F with the result

in agreement with the SU(3) expectation of QCD. The quark-related contribution to the event multiplicity is subtracted from the three-jet event multiplicity resulting in a measurement of the multiplicity of two-gluon colour-singlet states over a wide energy range. The ratios \(r = N_{gg}(s)/N_{q\bar q}(s)\) of the gluon and quark multiplicities and \(r^{(1)} = N_{gg}'(s)/N_{q\bar q}'(s)\) of their derivatives are compared with perturbative calculations.

While a good agreement between calculations and data is observed for r⁽¹⁾, larger deviations are found for r indicating that non-perturbative effects are more important for r than for r⁽¹⁾.