Investigation of quark–antiquark interaction properties using leading particle measurements in e+e− annihilation

Measurements of heavy quark production in electron–positron collisions are used to analyse the strong interactions between quarks and antiquarks. A scaling behaviour is observed in distributions of the rapidity change of D∗, B∗, and B mesons. From these distributions information is obtained on the hadron formation time, effective quark masses, and the potential between quark–antiquark pairs. Predictions for fragmentation functions are presented.