Tensor polarization of vector mesons from quark and gluon fragmentation

TL;DR

This paper investigates the production of vector mesons like ta and ta in electron scattering, focusing on how to extract new fragmentation functions related to tensor polarization from decay angular distributions.

Contribution

It introduces a method to extract novel tensor polarization fragmentation functions and photon double spin-flip distributions from experimental angular data.

Findings

Proposes extraction techniques for ta tensor polarization functions.

Analyzes angular distributions to access new fragmentation functions.

Provides a framework for studying polarization effects in meson production.

Abstract

We considered the electro- and photoproduction of \rho and other vector mesons with moderately large transverse momentum in the scattering of unpolarized electrons on unpolarized nucleons and nuclei. For these processes we have analyzed how to extract the novel fragmentation functions \bar b_1^q(z), \bar b_1^G(z), describing tensor polarization, and the photon double spin-flip distribution \Delta^\gamma from the angular distribution of meson decay products.