Hadron production by electron--positron annihilation at 4-GeV center-of-mass energy

We have measured the total cross section for electron-positron annihilation into three or more hadrons, with at least two charged particles in the final state. The measurement was made at a center-of-mass energy of 4 GeV with a 2π-sr nonmagnetic detector. With 88 events detected, we obtain a model-independent lower limit on the hadron production cross section of 9.6 ± 1.4 nb; a calculation of detection efficiency based on invariant phase-space production of pions leads to a total cross section of 26 ± 6 nb. This cross section is 4.7 ± 1.1 times the theoretical total cross section for e⁺e⁻→μ⁺μ⁻. The average charged multiplicity is n̄=4.2±0.6.