Measurement of the running of the electromagnetic coupling at large momentum-transfer at LEP

Achard, P.; Adriani, O.; Aguilar-Benitez, M.; Alcaraz, J.; Alemanni, G.; Allaby, J.; Aloisio, A.; Alviggi, M.G.; Anderhub, H.; Andreev, V.P.; Anselmo, F.; Arefiev, A.; Azemoon, T.; Aziz, T.; Bagnaia, P.; Bajo, A.; Baksay, G.; Baksay, L.; Baldew, S.V.; Banerjee, S.; Banerjee, Sw.; Barczyk, A.; Barillère, R.; Bartalini, P.; Basile, M.; Batalova, N.; Battiston, R.; Bay, A.; Becattini, F.; Becker, U.; Behner, F.; Bellucci, L.; Berbeco, R.; Berdugo, J.; Berges, P.; Bertucci, B.; Betev, B.L.; Biasini, M.; Biglietti, M.; Biland, A.; Blaising, J.J.; Blyth, S.C.; Bobbink, G.J.; Böhm, A.; Boldizsar, L.; Borgia, B.; Bottai, S.; Bourilkov, D.; Bourquin, M.; Braccini, S.; Branson, J.G.; Brochu, F.; Burger, J.D.; Burger, W.J.; Cai, X.D.; Capell, M.; Cara Romeo, G.; Carlino, G.; Cartacci, A.; Casaus, J.; Cavallari, F.; Cavallo, N.; Cecchi, C.; Cerrada, M.; Chamizo, M.; Chang, Y.H.; Chemarin, M.; Chen, A.; Chen, G.; Chen, G.M.; Chen, H.F.; Chen, H.S.; Chiefari, G.; Cifarelli, L.; Cindolo, F.; Clare, I.; Clare, R.; Coignet, G.; Colino, N.; Costantini, S.; De La Cruz, B.; Cucciarelli, S.; De Asmundis, R.; Déglon, P.; Debreczeni, J.; Degré, A.; Dehmelt, K.; Deiters, K.; Della Volpe, D.; Delmeire, E.; Denes, P.; DeNotaristefani, F.; De Salvo, A.; Diemoz, M.; Dierckxsens, M.; Dionisi, C.; Dittmar, M.; Doria, A.; Dova, M.T.; Duchesneau, D.

doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2005.07.052

research article

Measurement of the running of the electromagnetic coupling at large momentum-transfer at LEP

Achard, P.

•

Adriani, O.

•

Aguilar-Benitez, M.

2005

Physics Letters, Section B: Nuclear, Elementary Particle and High-Energy Physics

The evolution of the electromagnetic coupling, α, in the momentum-transfer range 1800 GeV2 < -Q2 < 21600 GeV2 is studied with about 40 000 Bhabha-scattering events collected with the L3 detector at LEP at centre-of-mass energies √s = 189-209 GeV. The running of α is parametrised as: α(Q2) = α0/1 - C Δα(Q2), where α ≡ α(Q2 = 0) is the fine-structure constant and C = 1 corresponds to the evolution expected in QED. A fit to the differential cross section of the e+e- → e+e- process for scattering angles in the range |cos θ| < 0.9 excludes the hypothesis of a constant value of α, C = 0, and validates the QED prediction with the result: C = 1.05±0.07±0.14, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.