First Study of Rapidity Gaps in e+e- Annihilation

TL;DR

This paper investigates rapidity gaps in electron-positron annihilation events, finding exponential spectra without anomalies, supporting the color-singlet exchange interpretation in high-energy collisions.

Contribution

It is the first study of rapidity gaps in e+e- annihilations, providing experimental data that supports existing theories about color-singlet exchanges.

Findings

Rapidity gap spectra decay exponentially with size.

No anomalous large-gap events observed.

Heavy flavors or extra jets do not alter results.

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.