Space-time picture of the string fragmentation and the fusion of colour   strings
  It is shown that naive two stage scenario of the soft multiparticle production in hadronic and nuclear collisions at high energy, when at first stage the colour strings are formed and at the second stage these strings, or some other (higher colour) strings formed due to fusion of primary strings, are decaying, emitting observed particles, encounters some difficulties at the attempt to analyse the space-time picture of the process. Simple analysis shows the dominant is the process when the formation and the decay of a string occur in parallel - a string breaks into two parts already at rather small length (about 1-2 fm in its c.m. system), then the process repeats in the pieces and so on. Nevertheless it is proved to be possible to agree the string fusion idea with the space-time picture of a string decay. In the framework of the Artru-Mennessier model of a string fragmentation the simple interpretation of the homogeneity of the rapidity distribution for hadrons produced from the decay of a single string at high energy is presented and the analytical estimate for the density of this rapidity distribution is obtained. 
V. V. Vechernin (St.Petersburg State University)