First Study of Rapidity Gaps in e+e- Annihilation

Abstract

We present the first study of rapidity gaps in e+e- annihilations using Z0 decays collected by the SLD experiment at SLAC. Our measured rapidity gap spectra fall exponentially with increasing gap size over five decades, and we observe no anomalous class of events containing large gaps. This supports the interpretation of the large-gap events measured in pp and ep collisions in terms of exchange of color-singlet objects. The presence of heavy flavors or additional jets does not affect these conclusions.