Determination of Fragmentation Functions from Charge Asymmetries in Hadron Production

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new method to extract non-singlet fragmentation functions of light hadrons from charge asymmetry data, achieving precise results at NNLO and offering insights into hadronization processes.

Contribution

The authors develop a novel approach to determine non-singlet fragmentation functions from charge asymmetries, including comprehensive uncertainty analysis at NNLO.

Findings

NS FFs for pions and kaons determined at NNLO

Scaling index of about 0.7 at large momentum fractions

Strangeness suppression factor of about 0.5

Abstract

We propose a novel method for extracting non-singlet (NS) fragmentation functions (FFs) of light charged hadrons from charge asymmetries measured in hadron fragmentation, using data from both single-inclusive electron-positron annihilation and semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering processes. We determine the NS FFs for pions and kaons at next-to-next-to-leading order in Quantum Chromodynamics, including a comprehensive uncertainty analysis. The extracted FFs reveal a scaling index of about 0.7 at large momentum fractions and low energy scales, a strangeness suppression factor of about 0.5, and universality in fragmentation of light mesons. Our findings provide a valuable benchmark for testing non-perturbative QCD models and Monte Carlo event generators, and serve as crucial input for future electron-ion colliders.