Perturbative QCD data are consistent with light gluinos

Abstract

We discuss systematically the consistency of light gluinos with data on perturbative QCD from deep inelastic scattering, quarkonia, jets at LEP, and the total hadronic cross-section in ${e^+ e^-}$ annihilation on the $Z$ peak and elsewhere. We demonstrate that, in addition to the well-known increase in the value of $\alpha_s(m_Z)$ inferred from lower-energy data due to the slower running of $\alpha_s$ in the presence of light gluinos, the value of $\alpha_s(m_Z)$ extracted from the LEP data must also be $increased$, as a result of including the effects of virtual light gluinos. The effect of these increases in other estimates of $\alpha_s(m_Z)$ is to make them more consistent with the value extracted from the total $e^+ e^-$ cross-section, which would otherwise appear distinctly higher. We discuss the possibility of looking for light gluinos in four-jet events at LEP, and their possible implications for scaling violations at HERA.