Measurement of the longitudinal and transverse cross-section in e+e− annihilation at s=35–44 GeV

An investigation of the polar angle distribution of charged hadrons is presented using data taken by the JADE experiment at the PETRA e+e− collider at centre-of-mass energies of 35 and 44 GeV. From fits to the polar angle distribution the longitudinal, σL, and transverse, σT, cross-section relative to the total hadronic are determined at an average energy scale of 36.6 GeV. The results are σLσtot=0.067±0.013, σTσtot=0.933∓0.013, where total errors are given and the results are exactly anticorrelated. Using the next-to-leading order QCD prediction for the longitudinal cross-section, the value αS(36.6 GeV)=0.150±0.025 of the strong coupling constant is obtained in agreement with the world average value of αS evolved to an energy scale of 36.6 GeV.