Applications of the inclusive cross-section \\sigma (e⁺e^- --> hadrons)

by Matthias STEINHAUSER (Hamburg)

Friday 4 Apr 2003, 14:00 → 15:00 Europe/Zurich

TH Auditorium (CERN)

In the first part of the talk, the experimental and theoretical status of the quantity R(s) = \\sigma(e⁺e^- --> hadrons)/\\sigma_pt is reviewed, where special emphasis is put on the recent developments in the evaluation of higher order QCD corrections. Afterwards, the program rhad is introduced, where all currently available corrections to R(s) are collected together with auxiliary tools allowing for a consistent evaluation of the strong coupling and the quark masses. As far as the phenomenological applications are concerned, we mainly concentrate of the determinations of \\alpha_s and the charm and bottom quark masses, and mention only briefly \\Delta\\alpha_had and the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon. Finally, the impact of possible new measurements of CLEO~III is discussed.