Measurement of the total hadronic cross section in e+e- annihilation at s=29 GeV

A precise measurement of the ratio R of the total cross section e+e-hadrons to the pointlike cross section e+e-+- at a center-of-mass energy of 29.0 GeV is presented. The data were taken with the upgraded Mark II detector at the SLAC storage ring PEP. The result is R=3.920.050.09. The luminosity has been determined with three independent luminosity monitors measuring Bhabha scattering at different angular intervals. Recent calculations of higher-order QED radiative corrections are used to estimate the systematic error due to missing higher-order radiative corrections in the Monte Carlo event generators. © 1991 The American Physical Society.