Probability of color singlet chain states in e(+)e(-) annihilation - art. no. 012006

We use the method of the color effective Hamiltonian to study the structure of color singlet chain states in N-c = 3 and in the large N-c limit. In or der to obtain their total fraction when N-c is finite, we illustrate how to orthogonalize these nonorthogonal states. We give numerical results for th e fraction of orthogonalized states in e(+)e(-) -->q (q) over bar gg. With the help of a diagram technique, we derive their fraction up to O(1/N-c(2)) for the general multigluon process. For large N-c the singlet chain states correspond to well-defined color topologies. Therefore we may expect that the fraction of non-color-singlet-chain states is an estimate of the fracti on of events where color reconnection is possible. In the case of soft gluo n bremsstrahlung, we give an explicit form for the color effective Hamilton ian which leads to the dipole cascade formulation for parton showering in l eading order in N-c. The next-to-leading order corrections are also given f or e(+)e(-) -->q (q) over barg(1)g(2) and e(+)e(-)-->q (q) over barg(1)g(2) g(3).