Massive quark production in electron positron annihilation to order #alpha#"2_s

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 #alpha#_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 #alpha#(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 #beta#, are presented. (orig.)SIGLEAvailable from TIB Hannover: RA 2999(97-220) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekBundesministerium fuer Bildung, Wissenschaft, Forschung und Technologie, Bonn (Germany); Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), Bonn (Germany); International Association for the Promotion of Co-Operation with Scientists from the Independent States of the Former Soviet Union (INTAS)DEGerman