Determination of Fragmentation Functions from Charge Asymmetries in Hadron Production

Abstract We propose a novel method for extracting non-singlet (NS) fragmentation functions (FFs) of light charged hadrons from charge asymmetries measured in hadron fragmentation, using data from both single-inclusive electron-positron annihilation and semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering processes.
We determine the NS FFs for pions and kaons at next-to-next-to-leading order in Quantum Chromodynamics, including a comprehensive uncertainty analysis.
The extracted FFs reveal a scaling index of about 0.7 at large momentum fractions and low energy scales, a strangeness suppression factor of about 0.5, and universality in fragmentation of light mesons.
Our findings provide a valuable benchmark for testing non-perturbative QCD models and Monte Carlo event generators, and serve as crucial input for future electron-ion colliders. Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI. Article funded by SCOAP3 and published under licence by Chinese Physical Society and the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Science and the Institute of Modern Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and IOP Publishing Ltd.