PROPERTIES OF MULTIPLICITY DISTRIBUTIONS IN QCD

New predictions for the behavior of multiplicity distributions in e+e- collisions and their moments are obtained from the QCD equations for generating functions of these distributions by taking nonlinear terms into account more correctly than in commonly used approximations. The role of quark degrees of freedom is shown to be insignificant. It is f ound that the ratio of cumulant moments to factorial moments has a cha racteristic minimum. The existence of this minimum is confirmed by the experimental data and leads to the conclusion that the negative binom ial distribution is inapplicable. The predictions of QCD are compared with the most characteristic phenomenological distributions.