The particle flow distributions in the event plane of 3-jet\((e^ +e^ -\to q\bar qg)\) and of radiative 2-jet\((e^ +e^ -\to q\bar q\gamma )\) events are compared at a centre of mass energy of 35 GeV. The number of particles in the angular region opposite to the gluon in\(q\bar qg\) events is found to be significantly reduced relative to the number of particles in the region opposite to the hard photon in\(q\bar q\gamma \) events. This depletion is expected from the “string effect” observed in 3-jet events. It can be explained within the framework of QCD as arising from soft gluon interference.
Data requested from authors.
The charged particle multiplicities of the quark and gluon jets in the three-fold symmetric e + e − → q q g events at √ s = 29 GeV have been studied using the high resolution spectrometer at PEP. A value of 〈 n 〉 g = 6.7 −2.1 +1.1 ±1.0 for gluon jet s with an energy of 9.7 −2.0 +1.5 GeV is measured. The ratio, 〈 n 〉 g /〈 n 〉 q , is 1.29 −0.41 +0.21 ±0.20, which i s significantly lower than the value of 9 4 naively expected from the ration of the gluon-to-quark color charges.
Mean jet charged particle interpretations for gluon and quark jets as described above.