Clusters and the rapidity interval method

An effective method of analysing the experimental jets with the aim of discovering the clusterization phenomenon of particles produced in high-energy inelastic processes is proposed. The method exploits the set of all possible rapidity intervals, i.e. rapidity differences of two particles ysub(i+k+1)-ysub(i) with some k particles having rapidities in between (the usual gap corresponds to k=0). It provides information which is in principle as complete as that obtained from the correlation functions. It is simple in application and physically clear. The method is applied to various models and the rapidity interval distributions thus obtained are compared to the experimental data for π-p 40 GeV and pp 70 and 200 GeV collisions. The important role of clusterization of secondary particles follows from the comparison. It is predicted that the two-bump structure should develop for k>=4 and large multiplicities in pp interactions at 200 GeV if two baryonic clusters were produced