We have determined the strong coupling ${\mathrm{\alpha }}_{\mathit{s}}$ from measurements of jet rates in hadronic decays of ${\mathit{Z}}^0$ bosons collected by the SLD experiment at SLAC. Using six collinear and infrared safe jet algorithms we compared our data with the predictions of QCD calculated up to second order in perturbation theory, and also with resummed calculations. We find ${\mathrm{\alpha }}_{\mathit{s}}$(${\mathit{M}}_{\mathit{Z}}^2$)=0.118±0.002(stat)±0.003(syst)±0.010(theory), where the dominant uncertainty is from uncalculated higher order contributions.

• Received 21 July 1993

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.71.2528