We develop the theoretical framework needed to study the distribution of hadrons with general polarization inside jets, with and without transverse momentum measured with respect to the standard jet axis. The key development in this paper, referred to as "polarized jet fragmentation functions", opens up new opportunities to study both collinear and transverse momentum dependent (TMD) fragmentation functions. As two examples of the developed framework, we study longitudinally polarized collinear $Λ$ and transversely polarized TMD $Λ$ production inside jets in both $pp$ and $ep$ collisions. We find that both observables have high potential in constraining spin-dependent fragmentation functions with sizeable asymmetries predicted, in particular, at the future Electron-Ion Collider.
The jet fragmentation function describes the longitudinal momentum distribution of hadrons inside a reconstructed jet. We study the jet fragmentation function in proton-proton collisions in the framework of soft-collinear effective theory (SCET). We find that, up to power corrections, the jet fragmentation function can be expressed as the ratio of the fragmenting jet function and the unmeasured jet function. Using renormalization group techniques, we are able to resum large logarithms of jet radii R in the perturbative expansion of the cross section. We use our theoretical formalism to describ…
We present a novel global QCD analysis of charged $D^{*}$-meson fragmentation functions at next-to-leading order accuracy. This is achieved by making use of the available data for single-inclusive $D^{*}$-meson production in electron-positron annihilation, hadron-hadron collisions, and, for the first time, in-jet fragmentation in proton-proton scattering. It is shown how to include all relevant processes efficiently and without approximations within the Mellin moment technique, specifically for the in-jet fragmentation cross section. The presented technical framework is generic and can be stra…
Recently the LHCb collaboration has measured both longitudinal and transverse momentum distribution of hadrons produced inside $Z$-tagged jets in proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider. These distributions are commonly referred to as jet fragmentation functions and are characterized by the longitudinal momentum fraction $z_h$ of the jet carried by the hadron and the transverse momentum $j_\perp$ with respect to the jet direction. We derive a QCD formalism within Soft-Collinear Effective Theory to describe these distributions and find that the $z_h$-dependence provides informatio…
We briefly report our recent progress on the study of the polarized fragmentation functions of $Λ$ hyperon in unpolarized semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scatterings and electron-positron annihilations at low energies. In particular, we present a simple but practical method on how to measure the azimuthal-angle-dependent longitudinal polarization and the transverse polarization inside the production plane and bridge these observables to the corresponding structure functions and fragmentation functions at the leading twist. Our work diversifies the high energy reactions that can probe the polariz…
We introduce a broad class of fractal jet observables that recursively probe the collective properties of hadrons produced in jet fragmentation. To describe these collinear-unsafe observables, we generalize the formalism of fragmentation functions, which are important objects in QCD for calculating cross sections involving identified final-state hadrons. Fragmentation functions are fundamentally nonperturbative, but have a calculable renormalization group evolution. Unlike ordinary fragmentation functions, generalized fragmentation functions exhibit nonlinear evolution, since fractal observabl…
The Sivers Function is briefly reviewed and the Collins Fragmentation Function to produce a hadron from a polarized quark is defined. We estimate $π^{+},π^{-}$ +X production, where X represents particles which are not detected, via proton collisions with a polarized proton target using the Collins Fragmentation Function derived using the gluon distribution functions for polarized p-p collisions at E=$\sqrt{s}$=200 GeV.
We study the phenomenology of recoil-free jet axes using analytic calculations and Monte Carlo simulations. Our focus is on the average energy as function of the angle with the jet axis (the jet shape), and the energy and transverse momenta of hadrons in a jet (TMD fragmentation). We find that the dependence on the angle (or transverse momentum) is governed by a power law, in contrast to the double-logarithmic dependence for the standard jet axis. The effects of the jet radius, jet algorithm, angular resolution and grooming are investigated. TMD fragmentation is important for constraining the …
In order to describe the hadronization of polarized quarks, we discuss an extension of the quark-jet model to transverse momentum dependent fragmentation functions. The description is based on a product ansatz, where each factor in the product represents one of the transverse momentum dependent splitting functions, which can be calculated by using effective quark theories. The resulting integral equations and sum rules are discussed in detail for the case of inclusive pion production. In particular, we demonstrate that the 3-dimensional momentum sum rules are satisfied naturally in this transv…
We propose to model hadronization of parton showers in QCD jets through a hybrid approach involving quark recombination and string fragmentation. This is achieved by allowing gluons at the end of the perturbative shower evolution to undergo a non-perturbative splitting into quark and antiquark pairs, then applying a Monte-Carlo version of instantaneous quark recombination, and finally subjecting remnant quarks (those which have not found a recombination partner) to Lund string fragmentation. When applied to parton showers from the PYTHIA Monte Carlo event generator, the final hadron spectra fr…
We study the fragmentation of a jet propagating in a dense quark-gluon plasma. Using a leading, double-logarithmic approximation in perturbative QCD, we compute for the first time the effects of the medium on the vacuum-like emissions. We show that, due to the scatterings off the plasma, the in-medium parton showers differ from the vacuum ones in two crucial aspects: their phase-space is reduced and the first emission outside the medium can violate angular ordering. We compute the jet fragmentation function and find results in qualitative agreement with measurements at the LHC.
Theoretical understanding of the observed jet quenching measurements at RHIC and LHC is challenging in QCD because it requires understanding of parton to hadron fragmentation function in non-equilibrium QCD. In this paper, by using closed-time path integral formalism, we derive the gauge invariant definition of the gluon to hadron fragmentation function in non-equilibrium QCD which is consistent with factorization theorem in non-equilibrium QCD from first principles.
We argue that the process $pp \to (\text{jet} γ)X$, for which a photon is observed inside a fully reconstructed jet and is treated as part of the jet, offers new probes of the so far little known fragmentation functions for photons. We present a next-to-leading-order QCD calculation of the cross section for this process in the limit that the jet is relatively narrow. We also investigate the background resulting from the two-photon decay of neutral pions. We present numerical results relevant for possible measurements at the LHC and at RHIC. These suggest that $pp \to (\text{jet} γ)X$ should pr…
We study the fragmentation of a jet propagating in a dense quark-gluon plasma. Using a leading, double-logarithmic approximation in perturbative QCD, we compute for the first time the effects of the medium on the vacuum-like emissions. We show that, due to the scatterings off the plasma, the in-medium parton showers differ from the vacuum ones in two crucial aspects: their phase-space is reduced and the first emission outside the medium can violate angular ordering. We compute the jet fragmentation function and find results in qualitative agreement with measurements at the LHC.
We study the transverse momentum spectrum of hadrons in jets. By measuring the transverse momentum with respect to a judiciously chosen axis, we find that this observable is insensitive to (the recoil of) soft radiation. Furthermore, for small transverse momenta we show that the effects of the jet boundary factorize, leading to a new transverse-momentum-dependent (TMD) fragmentation function. In contrast to the usual TMD fragmentation functions, it does not involve rapidity divergences and is universal in the sense that it is independent of the type of process and number of jets. These results…
Using a recently-developed perturbative-QCD approach for jet evolution in a dense quark-gluon plasma, we study the nuclear modification factor for the jet fragmentation function. The qualitative behaviour that we find is in agreement with the respective experimental observations in Pb+Pb collisions at the LHC: a pronounced nuclear enhancement at both ends of the spectrum. Our Monte Carlo simulations are supplemented with analytic estimates which clarify the physical interpretation of the results. The main source of theoretical uncertainty is the sensitivity of our calculations to a low-momentu…
Coupled linear Boltzmann transport and hydrodynamic (CoLBT-hydro) model has been developed for simultaneous simulations of jet propagation and jet-induced medium excitation in heavy-ion collisions. Within this coupled approach, the final reconstructed jets in heavy-ion collisions include not only hadrons from the hadronization of medium modified jet shower partons from the linear Boltzmann transport (LBT) but also hadrons from the freeze-out of the jet-induced medium excitation in the hydrodynamic evolution of the bulk medium. Using the CoLBT-hydro model, we study medium modification of the fr…
The discovery of collectivity in proton-proton collisions, is one of the most puzzling outcomes from the two first runs at LHC, as it points to the possibility of creation of a Quark-Gluon Plasma, earlier believed to only be created in heavy ion collisions. One key observation from heavy ion collisions is still not observed in proton-proton, namely jet-quenching. In this letter it is shown how a model capable of describing soft collective features of proton-proton collisions, also predicts modifications to jet fragmentation properties. With this starting point, several new observables suited f…
The value of the parton to hadron fragmentation function in QCD in vacuum (for example from proton-proton collisions at high energy colliders) is directly/indirectly used in the literature to study the jet quenching and the hadron production from quark-gluon plasma at RHIC and LHC. In this paper we show that this is not possible because, unlike the perturbative propagator in non-equilibrium QCD, the parton to hadron fragmentation function is a non-perturbative quantity in QCD and hence it is not possible to decompose the fragmentation function in non-equilibrium QCD into the vacuum part and th…
Within the most recent extension of the quark-jet hadronization framework, we explore the transverse-polarization-dependent dihadron fragmentation functions (DiFFs) $H_1^\sphericalangle$ and $H_1^\perp$ of a quark into $π^+π^-$ pairs. Monte Carlo (MC) simulations are employed to model polarized quark hadronization and calculate the corresponding number densities. These, in turn, are used to extract the Fourier cosine moments of the DiFFs $H_1^\sphericalangle$ and $H_1^\perp$. A notable finding is that there are previously unnoticed apparent discrepancies between the definitions of the so-calle…
The effect of jet mass fluctuations on the fragmentation process is examined in the framework of a statistical hadronisation model. In this model, the fragmentation scale Q is taken to be the virtuality of the leading parton, and jet mass fluctuations are accounted for through this quantity. The scale evolution of the model is treated in the phi^3 theory with leading-order splitting function and one-loop coupling.
