Massive Quark Production in Electron Positron Annihilation to Order $α_s^2$

Abstract

Recent analytical and numerical results for the three-loop polarization function allow to present a phenomenological analysis of the cross section for massive quark production in electron positron annihilation to order $α_s^2$. Numerical predictions based on fixed order perturbation theory are presented for charm and bottom production above 5 and 11.5 GeV, respectively. The contribution from these energy regions to $α(M_Z^2)$, the running QED coupling constant at scale M_Z, are given. The dominant terms close to threshold, i.e. in an expansion for small quark velocity $β$, are presented.

26 pages (Latex), 16 figures (Postscript)