A Search for Jet Handedness in Hadronic Z0Z^0 Decays

We have searched for signatures of polarization in hadronic jets from $Z^0 \to q \bar{q}$ decays using the ``jet handedness'' method. The polar angle asymmetry induced by the high SLC electron-beam polarization was used to separate quark jets from antiquark jets, expected to be left- and right-polarized, respectively. We find no evidence for jet handedness in our global sample or in a sample of light quark jets and we set upper limits at the 95% C.L. of 0.063 and 0.099 respectively on the magnitude of the analyzing power of the method proposed by Efremov {\it et al.}Comment: Revtex, 8 pages, 2 figure

Measurement of the Charged Multiplicities in b, c and Light Quark Events from Z0 Decays

Average charged multiplicities have been measured separately in $b$, $c$ and light quark ($u,d,s$) events from $Z^0$ decays measured in the SLD experiment. Impact parameters of charged tracks were used to select enriched samples of $b$ and light quark events, and reconstructed charmed mesons were used to select $c$ quark events. We measured the charged multiplicities: $\bar{n}_{uds} = 20.21 \pm 0.10 (\rm{stat.})\pm 0.22(\rm{syst.})$, $\bar{n}_{c} = 21.28 \pm 0.46(\rm{stat.}) ^{+0.41}_{-0.36}(\rm{syst.})$ $\bar{n}_{b} = 23.14 \pm 0.10(\rm{stat.}) ^{+0.38}_{-0.37}(\rm{syst.})$, from which we derived the differences between the total average charged multiplicities of $c$ or $b$ quark events and light quark events: $\Delta \bar{n}_c = 1.07 \pm 0.47(\rm{stat.})^{+0.36}_{-0.30}(\rm{syst.})$ and $\Delta \bar{n}_b = 2.93 \pm 0.14(\rm{stat.})^{+0.30}_{-0.29}(\rm{syst.})$. We compared these measurements with those at lower center-of-mass energies and with perturbative QCD predictions. These combined results are in agreement with the QCD expectations and disfavor the hypothesis of flavor-independent fragmentation.Comment: 19 pages LaTex, 4 EPS figures, to appear in Physics Letters

A Measurement of alpha-s from jet rates at the Z0 resonance

We have determined the strong coupling alpha(s) from measurements of jet rates in hadronic decays of Z0 bosons collected by the SLD experiment at SLAC. Using six collinear and infrared safe jet algorithms we compared our data with the predictions of QCD calculated up to second order in perturbation theory, and also with resummed calculations. We find alpha(s)(M(Z)2)=0.118+/-0.002(stat)+/-0.003(syst) +/-0.010 (theory), where the dominant uncertainty is from uncalculated higher order contributions

Measurement of alpha-s from energy-energy correlations at the Z0 resonance

We have determined the strong coupling alpha-s from a comprehensive study of energy-energy correlations (EEC) and their asymmetry (AEEC) in hadronic decays of Z0 bosons collected by the SLD experiment at SLAC. The data were compared with all four available predictions of QCD calculated up to O(alpha-s**2) in perturbation theory, and also with a resummed calculation matched to all four of these calculations. We find large discrepancies between alpha-s values extracted from the different O(alpha-s**2) calculations. We also find a large renormalization scale ambiguity in alpha-s determined from the EEC using the O(alpha-s**2) calculations; this ambiguity is reduced in the case of the AEEC, and is very small when the matched calculations are used. Averaging over all calculations, and over the EEC and AEEC results, we obtain alpha-s(MZ)=0.124+0.003-0.004(exp.) +-0.009(theory).Comment: 37, SLAC-PUB-645