Abstract
Transverse-momentum distribution of quark-antiquark pairs createdthrough tunnelingfrom chromoelectric flux tubes of an arbitrary field strength spanned between two arbitrary color charges is computed and its properties discussed. It is also argued that such nonelementary flux tubes may be responsible for large-p tails recently observed in nucleus-nucleus collisions at energies ≳100 GeV per nucleon, and for shorter qq¯ formation times favoring appearance of qq¯ plasma.