Global analysis of fragmentation functions to light neutral hadrons

Fragmentation functions (FFs) are crucial nonperturbative components in quantum chromodynamics (QCD), playing a vital role in predictions and understanding of the hadronization process. In this paper, we present the FFs for <a:math xmlns:a="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><a:msubsup><a:mi>K</a:mi><a:mi>S</a:mi><a:mn>0</a:mn></a:msubsup></a:math>, <c:math xmlns:c="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><c:mi>η</c:mi></c:math>, <e:math xmlns:e="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><e:msup><e:mi>π</e:mi><e:mn>0</e:mn></e:msup></e:math> mesons, and <g:math xmlns:g="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><g:mi mathvariant="normal">Λ</g:mi></g:math> baryons in the context of global QCD analysis. The data included in the fit are from single inclusive <j:math xmlns:j="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><j:msup><j:mi>e</j:mi><j:mo>+</j:mo></j:msup><j:msup><j:mi>e</j:mi><j:mo>−</j:mo></j:msup></j:math> annihilation (SIA), semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering (SIDIS) and proton-proton collisions, with kinematic cuts carefully applied to ensure validity of collinear factorization and perturbative QCD expansion. For the first time, data from SIDIS and hadron-in-jet production in SIA have been incorporated into the extraction of FFs for light-flavor neutral hadrons. Our analysis reveals that these data play a critical role in constraining the gluon distribution, and in distinguishing between different quark flavors. Pulls from different datasets are also studied by performing alternative fits with systematically subtracting groups of data from the nominal fit. For the quality of the fit, good <l:math xmlns:l="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><l:msup><l:mi>χ</l:mi><l:mn>2</l:mn></l:msup></l:math> values are achieved for most of the datasets, and FFs are generally well constrained within the momentum fraction region (0.1,0.5). The extracted <n:math xmlns:n="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><n:msubsup><n:mi>K</n:mi><n:mi>S</n:mi><n:mn>0</n:mn></n:msubsup></n:math> fragmentation functions, together with the <p:math xmlns:p="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><p:msubsup><p:mi>K</p:mi><p:mi>S</p:mi><p:mn>0</p:mn></p:msubsup></p:math> FFs constructed from <r:math xmlns:r="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><r:msup><r:mi>K</r:mi><r:mo>±</r:mo></r:msup></r:math> FFs via isospin symmetry, are used to test isospin symmetry in kaon fragmentation. Although a definitive conclusion cannot be reached yet, these studies have identified several potential measurements that can be performed at existing facilities, which may ultimately help us to arrive at a conclusive answer. With the comprehensive species of FFs extracted within the NPC framework, we are able to perform a test on the momentum sum rule with the light-flavor charged and neutral hadrons. These neutral hadrons are found to carry a relatively smaller fraction of the fragmenting parton’s momentum compared to the charged ones. The central and Hessian error sets of the fitted FFs, denoted as , are publicly available in the form of LHAPDF6 grids.