Investigation of colour reconnection in WW events with the DELPHI detector at LEP-2.

In the reaction e+e-→WW→(q1q̄2)(q3q̄4) the usual hadronization models treat the colour singlets q1q̄2 and q3q̄4 coming from two W bosons independently. However, since the final state partons may coexist in space and time, cross-talk between the two evolving hadronic systems may be possible during fragmentation through soft gluon exchange. This effect is known as colour reconnection. In this article the results of the investigation of colour reconnection effects in fully hadronic decays of W pairs in DELPHI at LEP are presented. Two complementary analyses were performed, studying the particle flow between jets and W mass estimators, with negligible correlation between them, and the results were combined and compared to models. In the framework of the SK-I model, the value for its κ parameter most compatible with the data was found to be: κSK-I=2.2+2.5 -1.3 corresponding to the probability of reconnection to be in the range at 68% confidence level with its best value at 0.52