Colour interference and confinement effects in W-pair production

In the reactione + e – rarrW + W – rarr ( $$q_1 ar q_2 $$ ) ( $$Q_1 ar Q_2 $$ ) we expect that normally the colour singlet systems ( $$q_1 ar q_2 $$ ) and ( $$Q_1 ar Q_2 $$ ) hadronize independently into two hadron chains or strings. However also the pairs ( $$q_1 ar Q_2 $$ ) and ( $$Q_1 ar q_2 $$ ) form colour singlets with probability 1/N c 2 =1/9. This probability could be further enhanced by gluon exchange. We therefore expect that the hadronization can give ldquorecoupledrdquo colour strings between these quark-antiquark pairs with some small probability, and a study of this effect will give interesting information about the vacuum structure. In this paper we discuss a possible experimental signal for recoupled events and show that such events can be identified also when the effect of gluon emission before the recoupling is taken into account