Measurement of the z- and x-dependence of the Mean Transverse Momentum of Charged Hadrons, Charged Pions and K_s^0 at HERMES

TL;DR

This study measures how the average transverse momentum of various charged hadrons depends on energy fraction and Bjorken x in deep inelastic scattering, revealing charge-dependent differences linked to quark flavor dynamics.

Contribution

It provides the first observation of charge-dependent <P_{ot}> differences at high z, suggesting flavor dependence of quark transverse momentum distributions.

Findings

Charge-dependent <P_{ot}> differences observed at high z

Differences between positive and negative hadrons and K_s^0

Results suggest flavor dependence of intrinsic quark transverse momentum

Abstract

The mean transverse momenta of hadrons, <P_{\bot}>, produced in e^+ N deep inelastic scattering was studied as a function of the hadron energy fraction z and the Bjorken variable x. The statistical accuracy of the HERMES data permitted to observe at high z differences in <P_{\bot}> between hadrons with positive and negative charges, h^+, h^- and K_s^0 for the first time. These differences can presumably be explained by the flavour dependence of the intrinsic transverse momentum distributions of quarks in the initial nucleon.