DOIAbstract
A semiclassical model is presented for the way the energy of a fast quark is transformed into observable hadrons. It reproduces the features of 1+1 dimensional QED (the Schwinger model) concerning a flat rapidity distribution in the central region. It also reproduces results from phenomenological considerations, which, based upon scaling, predict that meson formation in the fragmentation region can be described by an iterative scheme, implying a set of coupled integral equations. In particular the model predicts that the probability to find a meson containing the leading quark is independent of the Feynman scaling variable z. The iterative structure corresponds to a Brownian motion with relevance both to the confinement problems and to the ...