Multiplicity and transverse momentum correlations in multihadronic final states in e+e− interactions at √s = 91.2 GeV

Abstract We report a study of forward-backward multiplicity correlations and a measurement of the dependence on charged multiplicity of the mean transverse momentum of charged hadrons, measured with respect to the thrust axis. The study was performed on a high statistics sample of Z 0 decays to multihadronic final states collected by the OPAL Collaboration at LEP. The positive forward-backward multiplicity correlation observed in our inclusive sample can be understood in terms of a superposition of distinct event topologies characterized by a different amount of hard gluon radiation (2-, 3- and 4-jet events) and with different mean multiplicities. The residual positive correlation that we see in a clean 2-jet sample can be interpreted in terms of fragmentation properties of different quark flavours and of the production and decay of resonances. We have compared the observed effects with the predictions of QCD-based parton shower models. The data are well described by the Jetset 7.3 Monte Carlo, while Herwig 5.5 does not satisfactorily reproduce the measured correlations. Hard gluon radiation is also shown to be responsible for the observed increase of about 40% in the mean transverse momentum of produced charged hadrons in the multiplicity range from 10 to 30. The comparison with the results obtained in an analysis of a sample enriched in Z 0 → bb events, shows that the presence of heavy flavours does not contribute significantly to the observed effect.