A Phenomenological Study of Heavy-Quark Fragmentation Functions in e+e- Annihilation

TL;DR

This paper compares different theoretical approaches to compute heavy-quark fragmentation functions in e+e- annihilation, proposing a new method to merge fixed-order and resummed calculations for improved accuracy.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method for merging fixed-order and resummed calculations of heavy-quark fragmentation functions in e+e- annihilation.

Findings

Resummed approach fits present data well.

Fixed-order calculation includes mass effects.

Proposed merging method enhances theoretical predictions.

Abstract

We consider the computation of D and B fragmentation functions in e+e- annihilation. We compare the results of fitting present data using the next-to-leading-logarithmic resummed approach, versus the O(alpha_s^2) fixed-order calculation, including also mass-suppressed effects. We also propose a method for merging the fixed-order calculation with the resummed approach.