Fragmentation functions (FFs) are essential non-perturbative QCD inputs for predicting hadron production cross sections in high energy scatterings. In this study, we present a joint determination of FFs for light charged hadrons through a global analysis at next-to-leading order (NLO) in QCD. Our analysis incorporates a wide range of precision measurements from the LHC, as well as data from electron-positron collisions and semi-inclusive deep inelastic scatterings. By including measurements of jet fragmentation at the LHC in our global analysis, we are able to impose strong constraints on the gluon FFs. A careful selection of hadron kinematics is applied to ensure the validity of factorization and perturbative calculations of QCD. In addition, we introduce several methodological advances in fitting, resulting in a flexible parametrization form and the inclusion of theoretical uncertainties from perturbative calculations. Our best-fit predictions show very good agreement with the global data, with $χ^2/N_{pt}\sim 0.90$. We also generate a large number of Hessian error sets to estimate uncertainties and correlations of the extracted FFs. FFs to charged pions (kaons and protons) are well constrained for momentum fractions down to 0.01 (0.1). Total momentum of partons carried by light charged hadrons are determined precisely. Their values for $u$, $d$ quarks and gluon saturate at about 50\% for a lower cut of the momentum fraction of 0.01. Pulls from individual datasets and impact of various choices of the analysis are also studied in details. Additionally, we present an update of the FMNLO program used for calculating hadron production cross sections. Our FFs, including the error sets (denoted as NPC23), are publicly available in the form of LHAPDF6 grids.
The pseudorapidity density of charged particles produced at LHC collisions are predicted by using two complementary production mechanisms with a set of consistent integrated and unintegrated parton distributions. We discuss the limiting fragmentation hypothesis and its possible violation, and we compare our model with other partonic models.
Fragmentation functions of pion, kaon, and nucleon are determined by global analyses of hadron-production data in $e^+e^-$ annihilation. It is particularly important that uncertainties of the fragmentation functions are estimated for the first time. We found that light-quark and gluon fragmentation functions have large uncertainties, so that one should be careful in using these functions for hadron-production processes in heavy-ion collisions and lepton scattering. The analysis is extended to possible exotic hadron search by fragmentation functions. We found that internal structure of $f_0 (98…
The fragmentation of a colored parton directly into a pair of colorless hadrons is a non-perturbative mechanism that offers important insights into the nucleon structure. Di-hadron fragmentation functions can be extracted from semi-inclusive electron-positron annihilation data. They also appear in observables describing the semi-inclusive production of two hadrons in deep-inelastic scattering of leptons off nucleons or in hadron-hadron collisions. When a target nucleon is transversely polarized, a specific chiral-odd di-hadron fragmentation function can be used as the analyzer of the net densi…
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…
It is proposed that fragmentation functions should be used to identify exotic hadrons. As an example, fragmentation functions of the scalar meson f_0(980) are investigated. It is pointed out that the second moments and functional forms of the u- and s-quark fragmentation functions can distinguish the tetraquark structure from $q\bar q$. By the global analysis of f_0 (980) production data in electron-positron annihilation, its fragmentation functions and their uncertainties are determined. It is found that the current available data are not sufficient to determine its internal structure, while …
In this short review paper, we discuss some of the recent advances in the field of parton fragmentation processes into hadrons as well as their possible modifications in QCD media. Hadron production data in e+e-, deep inelastic scattering and hadronic collisions are presented, together with global analyses of fragmentation functions into light and heavy hadrons and developments on parton fragmentation in perturbative QCD at small momentum fraction. Motivated by the recent RHIC data indicating a significant suppression of large-pT hadron production in heavy-ion collisions, several recent attemp…
We discuss the inclusive high-pT charged-particle production in proton-proton collisions at the LHC. The experimental data are compared to the NLO perturbative QCD calculations employing various sets of parton-to-hadron fragmentation functions. Most of the theoretical predictions are found to disastrously overpredict the measured cross sections, even if the scale variations and PDF errors are accounted for. The problem appears to arise from the presently too hard gluon-to-hadron fragmentation functions.
Limiting fragmentation in proton-proton, deuteron-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions is analyzed in the framework of the Balitsky-Kovchegov equation in high energy QCD. Good agreement with experimental data is obtained for a wide range of energies. Further detailed tests of limiting fragmentation at RHIC and the LHC will provide insight into the evolution equations for high energy QCD.
We discuss studies on determination of fragmentation functions and an application to exotic-hadron search by using characteristic differences between favored and disfavored functions. The optimum fragmentation functions are determined for pion, kaon, and proton in the leading order (LO) and next-to-leading order (NLO) of the running coupling constant alpha_s by global analyses of hadron-production data in electron-positron annihilation. Various parametrization results are much different in disfavored-quark and gluon fragmentation functions; however, we show that they are within uncertainties o…
The fragmentation fractions of c and b quarks into the weakly decaying charmed hadrons D0, D+, D_s+ and Lambda_c+, and into the charmed vector meson D*+ have been derived from the LEP measurements and averaged. The c quark fragmentation fractions represent probabilities to hadronise as a given charmed hadron, while the b quark fragmentation fractions are defined as sums of probabilities to hadronise as a particular charmed hadron or its antiparticle.
Experimental data, theoretical ideas and models concerning jet fragmentation and the hadronization process are reviewed, concentrating on the following topics: factorization and small-x resummation of fragmentation functions, hadronization models, single-particle yields and spectra in Z decay, comparisons between quark and gluon jets, current and target fragmentation in deep inelastic scattering, heavy quark fragmentation, Bose-Einstein correlations and WW fragmentation.
Fragmentation functions are determined for the pion, kaon, and proton by analyzing charged-hadron production data in electron-positron annihilation. It is important that uncertainties of the determined fragmentation functions are estimated in this analysis. Analysis results indicate that gluon and light-quark functions have large uncertainties especially at small Q^2. We find that next-to-leading-order (NLO) uncertainties are significantly reduced in comparison with leading-order (LO) ones in the pion and kaon. The fragmentation functions are very different in various analysis groups. However,…
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…
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.
Based on a multi-phase transport model, the measured jet fragmentation function ratio of Pb+Pb collisions to p+p collisions in CERN Large Hadron Collider experiments is decomposed into two parts, corresponding to the two contributions of jet hadronization from fragmentation and coalescence. The results suggest an existence of distinct competitions between two jet hadronization mechanisms for different $ξ$=ln(1/$z$) ranges in different centrality bins. The jet fragmentation functions for different types of hadrons (mesons and baryons) are proposed as a good probe to study the competition betwee…
We propose the formulation of a dihadron fragmentation function in terms of parton matrix elements. Under the collinear factorization approximation and facilitated by the cut-vertex technique, the two hadron inclusive cross section at leading order (LO) in e+ e- annihilation is shown to factorize into a short distance parton cross section and the long distance dihadron fragmentation function. We also derive the DGLAP evolution equation of this function at leading log. The evolution equation for the non-singlet quark fragmentation function is solved numerically with a simple ansatz for the init…
Semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering of polarized leptons off hadrons enables one to measure the antisymmetric part of the hadron tensor. For unpolarized hadrons this piece is odd under time reversal. In deep inelastic scattering it shows up as a $\langle \sin ϕ\rangle$ asymmetry for the produced hadrons. This asymmetry can be expressed as the product of a twist-three "hadron $\rightarrow$ quark" distribution function and a time reversal odd twist-two "quark $\rightarrow$ hadron" fragmentation function. This fragmentation function can only be measured for nonzero transverse momenta of the …
The field of fragmentation functions of light quarks and gluons is reviewed. In addition to integrated fragmentation functions, attention is paid to the dependence of fragmentation functions on transverse momenta and on polarization degrees of freedom. Higher-twist and di-hadron fragmentation functions are considered as well. Moreover, the review covers both theoretical and experimental developments in single-inclusive hadron production in electron-positron annihilation, deep-inelastic lepton-nucleon scattering, and proton-proton collisions.
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…
Fragmentation functions and their uncertainties are determined for pion, kaon, and proton by a global $χ^2$ analysis of charged-hadron production data in electron-positron annihilation and by the Hessian method for error estimation. It is especially important that the uncertainties of the fragmentation functions are estimated in this analysis. The results indicate that the fragmentation functions, especially gluon and light-quark fragmentation functions, have large uncertainties at small $Q^2$. There are large differences between widely-used functions by KKP (Kniehl, Kramer, and Pötter) and Kr…
We review recent progress in the study of parton propagation, interaction and fragmentation in both cold and hot strongly interacting matter. Experimental highlights on high-energy hadron production in deep inelastic lepton-nucleus scattering, proton-nucleus and heavy-ion collisions, as well as Drell-Yan processes in hadron-nucleus collisions are presented. The existing theoretical frameworks for describing the in-medium interaction of energetic partons and the space-time evolution of their fragmentation into hadrons are discussed and confronted to experimental data. We conclude with a list of…
We present new sets of pion, kaon, proton and inclusive charged hadron fragmentation functions obtained in NLO combined analyses of single-inclusive hadron production in electron-positron annihilation, proton-proton collisions, and deep-inelastic lepton-proton scattering with either particles identified in the final state. At variance with all previous fits, the present analyses take into account data where hadrons of different electrical charge are identified, which allow to discriminate quark from anti-quark fragmentation functions.
It is demonstrated that the fragmentation functions at large momentum fraction play a key role in hard hadron production from relativistic proton-proton collisions. We find that this region of the fragmentation functions is not strongly constrained by the electron-positron data. This freedom can be used (together with the transverse momentum distribution of partons) to reproduce hard pion-to-proton ratio data in relativistic proton-proton collisions.
We investigate the validity of the limiting-fragmentation hypothesis in relativistic heavy-ion collisions at energies reached at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). A phenomenological analysis of central AuAu and PbPb collisions based on a three-source relativistic diffusion model (RDM) is used to extrapolate pseudorapidity distributions of produced charged hadrons from RHIC to LHC energies into the fragmentation region. Data in this region are not yet available at LHC energies, but our results are compatible with the limiting-fragmentation conjecture in the full energy range sqrt(s_NN) = 19.6 Ge…
Nuclear multifragmentation process can be viewed as a recombination of nucleons into clusters of various sizes. In a combinatorial analysis, various moments of cluster size distribution appear to be quite simple in terms of canonical partition functions. This simple model can also describe a branching phenomena and a clusterization phenomena. The possibility of applying this fragmentation model in describing a hadronization of quark-gluon system and a strangeness production is discussed.
The bosonized QCD2+QED2 system for quarks with two flavors contains QCD2 and QED2 bound states, with an isoscalar photon at about 25 MeV and an isovector (I=1,I_3=0) photon at about 44 MeV. Consequently, when a quark and an antiquark at the two ends of a string pulls apart from each other at high energies, hadrons and soft photons will be produced simultaneously in the fragmentation of the string. The production of the QED2 soft photons in association with hadrons may explain the anomalous soft photon data in hadron-hadron collisions and e+e- annihilations at high energies.
We discuss hadron production in heavy ion collisions at RHIC. We argue that hadrons at transverse momenta P_T < 5 GeV are formed by recombination of partons from the dense parton phase created in central collisions at RHIC. We provide a theoretical description of the recombination process for P_T > 2 GeV. Below P_T = 2 GeV our results smoothly match a purely statistical description. At high transverse momentum hadron production is well described in the language of perturbative QCD by the fragmentation of partons. We give numerical results for a variety of hadron spectra, ratios and nuclear sup…
We show some recent HERWIG results related to the top quark mass measurement at the LHC and discuss possible improvements for studies of the bottom quark fragmentation function in the top decay.
Semi-inclusive hadron-production processes are becoming important in high-energy hadron reactions. They are used for investigating properties of quark-hadron matters in heavy-ion collisions, for finding the origin of nucleon spin in polarized lepton-nucleon and nucleon-nucleon reactions, and possibly for finding exotic hadrons. In describing the hadron-production cross sections in high-energy reactions, fragmentation functions are essential quantities. A fragmentation function indicates the probability of producing a hadron from a parton in the leading order of the running coupling constant $α…
In this paper we discuss the systematics of quarkonium production at the LHC. In particular, we focus on the necessity to sum logs of the form log(Q/p_perp) and log(p_perp/m_Q). We show that the former contributions are power suppressed, while the latter, whose contribution in fragmentation is well known, also arise in the short distance (i.e., non-fragmentation) production mechanisms. Though these contributions are suppressed by powers of m_Q/p_perp, they can be enhanced by inverse powers of v, the relative velocity between heavy quarks in the quarkonium. In the limit p_perp >> m_Q short dist…
We here concentrate on available $π^\pm$ and $K^\pm$ ALICE preliminary $R_{AA}$ data in central 2.76 TeV Pb+Pb collisions at LHC. These data show an interesting fine resolution hierarchy, i.e. the measured $K^\pm$ data have consistently lower suppression compared to $π^\pm$ measurements. We here ask whether theoretical predictions based on energy loss in dynamical QCD medium can quantitatively and qualitatively explain such fine resolution. While our suppression calculations agree well with the data, we find that qualitatively explaining the fine hierarchy critically depends on the choice of f…
Both charged hadrons and D mesons are considered to be excellent probes of QCD matter created in ultra relativistic heavy ion collisions. Surprisingly, recent experimental observations at LHC show the same jet suppression for these two probes, which - contrary to pQCD expectations - may suggest similar energy losses for light quarks and gluons in QCD medium. We here use our recently developed energy loss formalism in a finite size dynamical QCD medium to analyze this phenomenon that we denote as the "heavy flavor puzzle at LHC". We show that this puzzle is a consequence of an unusual combinati…
We perform a comprehensive new Monte Carlo analysis of high-energy lepton-lepton, lepton-hadron and hadron-hadron scattering data to simultaneously determine parton distribution functions (PDFs) in the proton and parton to hadron fragmentation functions (FFs). The analysis includes all available semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering and single-inclusive $e^+ e^-$ annihilation data for pions, kaons and unidentified charged hadrons, which allows the flavor dependence of the fragmentation functions to be constrained. Employing a new multi-step fitting strategy and more flexible parametrization…
We present new sets of fragmentation functions for protons and inclusive charged hadrons obtained in combined NLO QCD analyses of single-inclusive hadron production in electron-positron annihilation, proton-proton collisions, and deep-inelastic lepton-proton scattering. These analyses complement previous results for pion and kaon fragmentation functions with charge and flavor discrimination. The Lagrange multiplier technique is used to assess the uncertainties in the extraction of the new sets of fragmentation functions.
We investigate the properties of interference fragmentation functions measurable from the distribution of two hadrons produced in the same jet in the current fragmentation region of a hard process. We discuss the azimuthal angular dependences in the leading order cross section of two-hadron inclusive lepton-nucleon scattering as an example how these interference fragmentation functions can be addressed separately.
In the framework of the leading order of perturbative QCD and the nonrelativistic quark-diquark model of baryons we have obtained fragmentation function for c-quark to split into Omega_{ccc} baryon. It is shown that at LHC one can expect 3.5 10^3 events with Omega_{ccc} at p_t>5 GeV/c and -1<y<1 per year.
Using the formalism of two-hadron fragmentation functions, we discuss single-spin asymmetries occurring in the production of two hadrons in the current region of deep inelastic scattering, with a particular emphasis on transversity measurements.
The triply heavy baryons in the standard model formed in direct $c$ and $b$ quark fragmentation are the $Ω_{ccc}$, $Ω_{ccb}$, $Ω_{cbb}$ and $Ω_{bbb}$ baryons. We calculate their fragmentation functions in leading order of perturbative QCD. The universal fragmentation probabilities fall within the range of $10^{-5}-10^{-7}$.We also evaluate their cross section at the LHC ($\sqrt{s}=14$ TeV) using next-to-leading order matrix elements for heavy quark-antiquark pair production. We present the differential cross sections as functions of the transverse momentum as well as the total cross sections. …
In the literature it is assumed that the parton to hadron fragmentation function cannot be studied by using the lattice QCD method because of the sum over the (unobserved) outgoing hadronic states. However, in this paper we find that since the hadron formation from the partons can be studied by using the lattice QCD method, the parton to hadron fragmentation function can be studied by using the lattice QCD method by using the LSZ reduction formula for the partonic processes.
We propose the formulation of a dihadron fragmentation function in terms of parton matrix elements. Under the collinear factorization approximation and facilitated by the cut-vertex technique, the two hadron inclusive cross section at leading order (LO) in e+ e- annihilation is shown to factorize into a short distance parton cross section and the long distance dihadron fragmentation function. We also derive the DGLAP evolution equation of this function at leading log. The evolution equation for the non-singlet and singlet quark fragmentation function and the gluon fragmentation function are so…
We have measured the differential cross sections for the production of $π^{\pm}, K^{\pm}, K^0, K^{*0}, Φ, p$ and $Λ$ in hadronic $Z^0$ decays and in subsets of flavor-tagged $Z^0 \to$ light quark ($u \bar{u}$, $d \bar{d}$, or $s \bar{s}$), $Z^0 \to c \bar{c}$ and $Z^0 \to b \bar{b}$ events. Charged hadrons were identified with the SLD Cherenkov ring imaging detector. The vertex detector was employed to select flavor enriched samples and the polarized electron beam from SLC was used to tag quark and anti-quark jets. We observe a flavor dependence in the hadron fragmentation functions. We presen…
We argue that the emission of hadrons with transverse momentum up to about 5 GeV/c in central relativistic heavy ion collisions is dominated by recombination, rather than fragmentation of partons. This mechanism provides a natural explanation for the observed constant baryon-to-meson ratio of about one and the apparent lack of a nuclear suppression of the baryon yield in this momentum range. Fragmentation becomes dominant at higher transverse momentum, but the transition point is delayed by the energy loss of fast partons in dense matter.
We reconsider the option of extracting the transversity distribution by using interference fragmentation functions into two leading hadrons inside the same current jet. To this end, we perform a new study of two-hadron fragmentation functions. We derive new positivity bounds on them. We expand the hadron pair system in relative partial waves, so that we can naturally incorporate in a unified formalism specific cases already studied in the literature, such as the fragmentation functions arising from the interference between the s- and p-wave production of two mesons, as well as the production o…
We calculate the fragmentation function for charm quark into J/psi at the QCD next-to-leading-order (NLO) and find that the produced J/psi is of larger momentum fraction than it is at the leading-order. Based on the fragmentation function and partonic processes calculated at the NLO, the transverse momentum distribution on J/psi hadroproduction associated with a charm c (or \bar{c}) jet are predicted. We find that the distribution is enhanced by a factor of 2.0--3.3 at the NLO as p_t increased from 10 GeV to 100 GeV and it is measurable at the LHC with charm tagger. The measurement at the LHC …
The recently developed Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (NJL) - Jet model is used as an effective chiral quark theory to calculate the quark fragmentation functions to pions, kaons, nucleons, and antinucleons. The effects of the vector mesons rho, K* and phi on the production of secondary pions and kaons are included. The fragmentation processes to nucleons and antinucleons are described by using the quark-diquark picture, which has been shown to give a reasonable description of quark distribution functions. We incorporate effects of next-to-leading order (NLO) in the Q^2 evolution, and compare our results …
Determination of Fragmentation Functions from Charge Asymmetries in Hadron Production
State Key Laboratory of Dark Matter Physics, Shanghai Key Laboratory for Particle Physics and Cosmology, Key Laboratory for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (MOE), School of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University（上海交通大学物理与天文学院，粒子天体物理与宇宙学教育部重点实验室，暗物质物理全国重点实验室，粒子物理与宇宙学上海市重点实验室）
In the hadronic decays of Z, gluon emission leads to the appearance of the longitudinal component of the fragmentation function, F_L. Measurement of F_L and the transverse component, F_T, could thus provide an insight into the gluon fragmentation function. However, hadronization corrections at low x can be significant. Here we present a method of accounting for such corrections, using the JETSET event generator as illustration.
A next-to-leading order (NLO) analysis of hadron-jet momentum correlations in p-p collisions at the LHC is carried out. We show that the inclusive charged hadron momentum distributions inside jets is a very sensitive observable which allows one to disentangle among various fragmentation function sets presently available. Correlations with identified hadrons (kaons, protons) are investigated as well.
The inclusive spectra of charged particles measured at high transverse momenta ($p_T\gtrsim$2GeV/c) in proton-proton and proton-antiproton collisions in the range of center-of-mass energies $\sqrt{s}=200-7000$GeV are compared with next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations using seven recent sets of parton-to-hadron fragmentation functions (FFs). Accounting for the uncertainties in the scale choices and in the parton distribution functions, we find that most of the theoretical predictions tend to overpredict the measured LHC and Tevatron cross sections by up to a factor of two. We ide…
The medium modification of dihadron fragmentation functions in the deeply inelastic scattering (DIS) off a large nucleus is studied within the framework of the higher-twist expansion in the collinear factorization formalism. It is demonstrated that the modification due to multiple parton scattering in the nuclear medium is similar to that of the single hadron fragmentation function. However, the conditional distribution of the associated hadron given by the ratio of dihadron to single hadron fragmentation function shows only slight modification. The final results depend modestly on the nuclear…
In a coalescence plus independent fragmentation approach we calculate the $p_T$ spectra of the main hadrons: $π, K, p, \bar p, Λ, ϕ$ in a wide range of transverse momentum from low $p_T$ up to about 10 GeV. The approach in its main features was developed several years ago at RHIC energy. Augmenting the model with the inclusion of some more main resonance decays, we show that the approach correctly predicts the evolution of the $p_T$ spectra from RHIC to LHC energy and in particular the baryon-to-meson ratios $p/π,\bar p/π,Λ/K$ that reach a value of the order of unit at $p_T \sim 3\, \rm GeV$. …
