Measurement of the strong coupling αS from the three-jet rate in e+e--annihilation using JADE data

We present a measurement of the strong coupling alpha(S) using the three-jet rate measured with the Durham algorithm in e(+)e(-)-annihilation using data of the JADE experiment at centre-of-mass energies between 14 and 44 GeV. Recent theoretical improvements provide predictions of the three-jet rate in e(+)e(-)-annihilation at next-to-next-to-leading order. In this paper a measurement of the three-jet rate is used to determine the strong coupling aS from a comparison to next-to-next-to-leading order predictions matched with next-to-leading logarithmic approximations and yields a value for the strong coupling alpha(S)(M-Z0) = 0.1199 +/- 0.0010(stat) +/- 0.0021(exp) +/- 0.0054(had) +/- 0.0007(theo), consistent with the world average.