First extraction of the $\Lambda$ polarising fragmentation function from Belle $e^{+}{e}^{-}$ data

Abstract

We present a thorough phenomenological analysis of the experimental data from Belle Collaboration for the transverse $\Lambda$ and $\bar{\Lambda }$ polarisation, measured in $e^{+}{e}^{-}$ annihilation processes, for the case of inclusive (plus a jet) and associated production with a light charged hadron. This allows for the first ever extraction of the quark polarising fragmentation function for a $\Lambda$ hyperon, a transverse momentum dependent distribution giving the probability that an unpolarised quark fragments into a transversely polarised spin-1/2 hadron.

Comments: 6 pages, 4 figures (10 plots)