Discovery of Three-Jet Events and a Test of Quantum Chromodynamics at PETRA

Abstract

We report the analysis of the spatial energy distribution of data for ${e}^{+}{e}^{\ensuremath{-}}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\mathrm{hadrons}$ obtained with the MARK-J detector at PETRA. We define the quantity "oblateness" to describe the flat shape of the energy configuration and the three-jet structure which is unambiguously observed for the first time. Our data can be explained by quantum chromodynamic predictions for the production of quark-antiquark pairs accompanied by hard noncollinear gluons.