Observables for the Analysis of Event Shapes in e+e- Annihilation and Other Processes

We present a set of rotationally invariant observables which characterizes the "shapes" of events, and is calculable in quantum-chromodynamics perturbation theory for final states consisting of quarks and gluons (G). We include the effects of fragmentation to hadrons in comparing the shapes of events from the processes e⁺e^--->qq̄, e⁺e^--->qq̄G, and e⁺e^--->heavy resonance-->GGG, and from heavy-quark and lepton production. We indicate how our analysis may be extended to deep-elastic lepton-hadron interactions and hadron-hadron collisions involving large transverse momenta.