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

A precise measurement of the ratio {ital R} of the total cross section {ital e}{sup +}{ital e{minus}}{r arrow}hadrons to the pointlike cross section {ital e}{sup +}{ital e{minus}}{r arrow}{mu}{sup +}{mu}{sup {minus}} 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 {ital R}=3.92{plus minus}0.05{plus minus}0.09. 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.