Charge Retention in Deep-Inelastic Electroproduction

Abstract

We have measured the net charge of the forward hadrons electroproduced from a proton target and have observed a rise with increasing $x(=\frac{Q^2}{2M\nu })$. This effect is expected in the quark-proton model as the electroproduction of hadrons becomes dominated by the fragmentation of $u$ quarks. The data are also consistent with jet models in which a high-momentum leading hadron, rather than a slower hadron, is more likely to be carrying the parent quark.