Signatures of Flux Tube Fragmentation and Strangeness Correlations in pp Collisions

Abstract

In the fragmentation of a color flux tube in high-energy $pp$ collisions or $e^+$-$e^-$ annihilations, the production of $q$-$\bar q$ pairs along a color flux tube precedes the fragmentation of the tube. The local conservation laws in the production of these $q$-$\bar q$ pairs will lead to the correlations of adjacently produced hadrons. As a consequence, the fragmentation of a flux tube will yield a many-hadron correlation in the form of a chain of hadrons ordered in rapidity, with adjacent hadrons correlated in charges, flavor contents, and azimuthal angles. It will also lead to a two-hadron angular correlation between two hadrons with opposite charges or strangeness that is suppressed at $\Delta \phi\sim 0$ but enhanced at $\Delta \phi\sim \pi$, within a rapidity window $\Delta y $$\sim$$1/(dN/dy)$.