Signature of the Fragmentation of a Color Flux Tube
Abstract
The production of quark-antiquark pairs along a color flux tube precedes the fragmentation of the tube. Because of local conservation laws, the production of a q- q pair will lead to correlations of adjacently produced mesons (mostly pions). Adjacently produced mesons however can be signalled by their rapidity difference y falling within the window of | y | 1/(dN/dy), on account of the space-time-rapidity ordering of produced mesons in a flux tube fragmentation. Therefore, the local conservation laws of momentum, charge, and flavor will lead to a suppression of angular correlation function dN/(d φ\, d y) for two mesons with opposite charges or strangeness on the near side at ( φ, y) 0, but an enhanced correlation on the back-to-back, away side at φ π, within the window of | y | 1/(dN/dy). These properties can be used as signatures for the fragmentation of a color flux tube. The gross features of the signature of flux tube fragmentation for two oppositely charged mesons are qualitatively consistent with the STAR and NA61/SHINE angular correlation data for two hadrons with opposite charges in the low-pT region in high-energy pp collisions.
Turn this paper into a lesson
ArcXiv compiles a structured reading guide from this paper's metadata: plain-English importance, contributions, prerequisite concepts, which sections to read first, flashcards, and a quiz. Grounded in the abstract, never invented.