Study of quark fragmentation in<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mrow><mml:msup><mml:mrow><mml:mi>e</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mo>+</mml:mo></mml:mrow></mml:msup></mml:mrow></mml:math><mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mrow><mml:msup><mml:mrow><mml:mi>e</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mi mathvariant="normal">−</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:msup></mml:mrow></mml:math>annihilation at 29 GeV: Charged-particle multiplicity and single-particle rapidity distributions

This paper presents the charged-particle multiplicity distributions for ${e}^{+}$${e}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}}$ annihilation at \ensuremath{\surd}s =29 GeV measured in the High Resolution Spectrometer. The data, which correspond to an integrated luminosity of 185 ${\mathrm{pb}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}1}$, were obtained at the SLAC ${e}^{+}$${e}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}}$ storage ring PEP. The techniques used to correct the observed prong numbers are discussed. The multiplicity distribution of the charged particles has a mean value 〈n〉=12.87\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.03\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.30, a dispersion ${D}_{2}$=3.67\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.02\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.18, and an ${f}_{2}$ moment of 0.60\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.02\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.18. Results are also presented for a two-jet sample selected with low sphericity and aplanarity. The charged-particle distributions are almost Poissonian and narrower than have been reported by other ${e}^{+}$${e}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}}$ experiments in this energy range. The mean multiplicity increases with the event sphericity, and for the sample of threefold-symmetric three-jet events, a value of 〈n〉=16.3\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.3\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.7 is found. No correlation is observed between the multiplicities in the two hemispheres when the events are divided into two jets by a plane perpendicular to the thrust axis. This result is in contrast with the situation in soft hadronic collisions, where a strong forward-backward correlation is measured. For the single jets, a mean multiplicity of 6.43\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.02\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.15 and a dispersion value of ${D}_{2}$=2.55\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.02\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.13 are found. These values give further support to the idea of independent jet fragmentation. The multiplicity distributions are well fit by the negative-binomial distribution. The semi-inclusive rapidity distributions are presented. Comparisons are made to the measurements of charged-particle multiplicities in hadron-hadron and lepton-nucleon collisions.