COLOR OSCILLATIONS AND MEASURING THE QUARK CHARGE

Color oscillations analogous to neutrino oscillations but with very high frequency are shown to be present in hadron states below color threshold. Experiments to distinguish between fractionally charged and integrally charged quark models both below and above color threshold are discussed. The instantaneous quark charge is shown to be measurable only in very fast processes determined by the high-energy behavior of transition amplitudes well above color threshold. Results from the naive parton model for deep inelastic processes which indicate that real charges of quarks and gluons can be measured are shown to be in error because of neglect of color oscillations and inteference terms. © 1979.