Eur. Phys. J. C 21, 631-647 (2001)
DOI: 10.1007/s100520100757
The Lund fragmentation process for a multi-gluon string according to the area law
B. Andersson, S. Mohanty and F. SöderbergThe Department of Theoretical Physics, Lund University, Sölvegatan 14A, 22362 Lund, Sweden
(Received: 3 July 2001 / Published online: 31 August 2001 -© Springer-Verlag / Società Italiana di Fisica 2001 )
Abstract
The Lund area law describes the
probability for the production of a set of colourless hadrons from an
initial set of partons, in the Lund string fragmentation model. It
was derived from classical probability concepts but has later been
interpreted as the result of gauge invariance in terms of the Wilson
gauge loop integrals. In this paper we will present a general
method to implement the area law for a multi-gluon string state. In
this case the world surface of the massless relativistic string is a
geometrically bent (1+1)-dimensional surface embedded in the
(1+3)-dimensional Minkowski space. The partonic states are in
general given by a perturbative QCD cascade and are consequently
defined only down to a cutoff in the energy-momentum
fluctuations. We will show that our method defines the states
down to the hadronic mass scale inside an analytically calculable
scenario. We will then show that there is a differential version of our
process which is closely related to the generalized rapidity range
, which has been used as a measure on the partonic
states. We identify as the area spanned between the
directrix curve (the curve given by the parton energy-momentum
vectors laid out in colour order, which determines the string surface)
and the average curve (to be called the
-curve) of the
stochastic X-curves (curves obtained when the hadronic
energy-momentum vectors are laid out in rank order). Finally we
show that from the X-curve corresponding to a particular stochastic
fragmentation situation it is possible to reproduce the directrix
curve (up to one starting vector and a set of sign choices, one for
each hadron). This relationship provides an analytical formulation of
the notion of parton-hadron duality. The whole effort is made in order
to get a new handle to treat the transition region between where we
expect perturbative QCD to work and where the hadronic features become
noticeable.
© Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag 2001