A test for the gluon selfcoupling in the reactionse + e −→4 jets andZ 0→4 jets

We consider the reactionse ⁺ e ^?→γ^*→4 jets andZ ^o→4 jets with the 4 jets coming in two pairs of essentially back to back jets of high and low energy. We calculate the angular distribution of the low energy jet axis with respect to the high energy jet axis in QCD, in an abelian gluon model “QED” and a phase space model (PS). Using simple helicity arguments we show that our angular distribution is very sensitive to the triple gluon coupling in QCD. This is then confirmed by a complete calculation. Our correlation offers, therefore, a direct test for QCD as a non-abelian gauge theory.