A Study of the Charge of Leading Hadrons in Gluon and Quark Fragmentation

Abstract

In this study the electric charges of leading systems in quark and gluon jets from hadronic three-jet events in $e^+e^-$-annihilation measured with the DELPHI-experiment are examined. Leading systems are defined by a rapidity gap between the leading system of a jet and the rest of the event. The measured charge distributions are compared with results from Monte-Carlo simulations which do not contain colour-octet neutralisation processes. In the data an enhanced production of neutral leading systems compared to Monte-Carlo predictions is found in gluon jets, which is compatible with the expectations from colour-octet neutralisation. The quark jet sample is found in agreement with the simulation.