Probing QCD via four-jet decays of theZ boson

For a quantitative analysis of the non-Abelian three-gluon vertex a continuous parameterisation of possible deviations from QCD is highly desirable. An almost unique extension of the three-gluon vertex is provided by the dimension-6 operator Tr(F _μ ^ν F _ν ^ρ F _ρ ^μ ). The effects of this interaction term on various observables ine ⁺ e ^?→γ,Z→4 jet production are studied in detail. Presente ⁺ e ^? data are expected to give rather weak bounds on such anomalous contributions to the triple gluon vertex.