Neutral pion production in electron-positron annihilation at the $Z^0$ resonance

Abstract

The production of $\pi^0$ in the hadronization of q$\bar{q}$ events from $e^+e^-$ collisions at the $Z^0$ resonance is studied using the L3 detector at the CERN. Two photon decays of $\pi^0$ are isolated within the hadronic event samples. The resulting distribution of $\pi^0$ is corrected for inefficiency and generalized to include all $\pi^{0\prime}$s. The distributions of momentum and scaled momentum are examined, which is consistent with the Monte Carlo hadronic event generators JETSET and HERWIG. An average $\pi^0$ multiplicity in the interval $0.34 Gev/c<p<2.96 Gev/c$ is found.