Measurement of Leading Particle Effects in Decays ofZ0Bosons into Light Flavors

Abstract

We present evidence for leading particle production in hadronic decays of the Z{sup 0} boson to light-flavor jets. A polarized electron beam was used to tag quark and antiquark jets, and a vertex detector was employed to reject heavy-flavor events. Charged hadrons were identified with a Cherenkov ring imaging detector. In the quark jets, more high-momentum p, L, K{sup -}, and {bar K}{sup *0} were observed than their antiparticles, and vice versa for antiquark jets, providing direct evidence that the higher-momentum particles in jets are more likely to carry the primary quark or antiquark from the Z{sup 0} decay, and that s{bar s} production is suppressed in fragmentation. {copyright} {ital 1997} {ital The American Physical Society}