RAPIDITY CORRELATIONS IN PI+P, K+P AND PP INTERACTIONS AT 250 GEV/C

Two- and three-particle rapidity correlations are analyzed in K+ p and pi+ p-interactions at 250 GeV/c. The main contribution to the two- and three-particle correlation functions comes from mixing of events of different multiplicity. The (short range) two-particle correlation remaining after exclusion of mixing is significantly larger for (+ -) than for the equal charge combinations, and is positive for a wider range in rapidity difference. FRITIOF and a 2-string DPM are excluded by our data. A quark-gluon (multi-)string model can describe our inclusive correlation function, but needs to be tuned on the short range part. The multiplicity mixing part increases much faster with increasing energy than the short range part. In the central region, our correlation is similar to that observed in e+ e- and mu-p collisions at similar energy.