A Fixed-Order Calculation of the Heavy-Quark Fragmentation Function in e+e- Collisions

Abstract

We use a recently completed O(alpha_s^2) fixed-order calculation of the heavy-flavour production cross section in e+e- collisions to compute the heavy-quark fragmentation function. We fit the result of our calculation, convoluted with a Peterson fragmentation function, to available data for charm production, and thus obtain a value for the parameter epsilon in the Peterson function. We discuss the relevance of mass effects and of subleading terms in our calculation.

Comments: 7 pages, 2 eps figures