@misc{9233121,
  abstract     = {{The aim of this thesis is to investigate whether quantum interference between indistinguishable hadronization histories, that is, different ways the string can break while resulting in the same final state, can lead to observable effects in the momentum distributions of particles produced in string fragmentation. In the standard picture, hadronization is treated as a probabilistic process in which each event follows a single fragmentation history. However, if different histories lead to the same final state and cannot be distinguished experimentally in principle, they should be combined at the amplitude level, which allows for interference effects. This is studied in a simplified toy model.

An analytic expression for the three-particle correlation function C3 is derived for the final states pi+ pi- pi0 and pi+ pi- eta. Here, the eta is treated as a neutral pseudoscalar state rather than the physical meson. The calculation is performed by summing amplitudes coherently over the three contributing hadronization histories for a fixed up–antiup string and averaging the production points over a Gaussian source. The two channels behave in opposite ways: the pi0 channel is suppressed at small relative momenta with C3(0) = 1/3, while the eta channel is enhanced with C3(0) = 3, both relative to an incoherent baseline. The analytic results are illustrated numerically using PYTHIA with a reweighting procedure.

The results show that rank indistinguishability can produce observable effects within the toy model that are absent in the standard probabilistic treatment of hadronization. In addition, the sign of the interference is found to depend on the produced hadron.}},
  author       = {{Soltani, Zahra}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Rank Indistinguishability in String Fragmentation}},
  year         = {{2026}},
}