Hadron pair production in semi-inclusive electron positron annihilation process at twist-4

Abstract

AbstractFragmentation functions are important quantities in describing the hadronization process in high energy reactions. They can induce various azimuthal modulations which can be measured to reveal correlations between transverse momenta and polarizations. Without introducing initial state uncertainties, electron positron annihilation process is known as an ideal process to investigate the fragmentation functions. In this paper, therefore, we calculate the hadron pair production in the semi-inclusive electron positron annihilation process $$e^+ + e^- \rightarrow h_1+h_2 + {\bar{q}} +X$$ e + + e - → h 1 + h 2 + q ¯ + X at twist-4 to study dihadron fragmentation functions. Here $${\bar{q}}$$ q ¯ denotes an antiquark that corresponds to a jet of hadrons in experiments. Together with single hadron fragmentation functions, dihadron fragmentation functions can provide additional ways to extract nucleon parton distribution functions from the semi-inclusive deeply inelastic scattering experiments with two detected final state hadrons. We calculate the differential cross section of the hadron pair production semi-inclusive electron positron annihilation process at twist-4 level. The calculation is carried out by using the collinear expansion method. We also calculate azimuthal asymmetries in terms of dihadron fragmentation functions. Contributions from four-quark correlator are also taken into account. Both the electromagnetic and weak interactions are considered in this paper.