Thrust Distribution in Electron-Positron Annihilation using the Principle of Maximum Conformality

Abstract

We present a comprehensive and self-consistent analysis for the thrust distribution by using the Principle of Maximum Conformality (PMC). By absorbing all nonconformal terms into the running coupling using PMC via renormalization group equation, the scale in the running coupling shows the correct physical behavior and the correct number of active flavors is determined. The resulting PMC predictions agree with the precise measurements for both the thrust differential distributions and the thrust mean values. Moreover, we provide a new remarkable way to determine the running of the coupling constant $\alpha_s(Q^2)$ from the measurement of the jet distributions in electron-positron annihilation at a single given value of the center-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s}$.