Asymmetric Quark/Antiquark Hadronization in e+e- Annihilation

Abstract

We point out that the fragmentation of a strange quark into nucleons versus antinucleons is not necessarily identical $D_{p/s}(z,Q^2)\ne D_{\bar{p}/s}(z,Q^2)$, even though the perturbative contributions from gluon splitting and evolution are $p\leftrightarrow \bar{p}$ symmetric. The observation of such asymmetries in the hadronization of strange and other heavy quarks can provide insight into the nonperturbative mechanisms underlying jet fragmentation in QCD.

Comments: Latex, 12 pages