NJL-jet Model Research Articles

Effects of Quark Spin Flip on the Collins Fragmentation Function in a Toy Model

The recent extension of the NJL-jet model to hadronization of transversely polarized quarks allowed the study of the Collins fragmentation function. Both favored and unfavored Collins fragmentation functions were generated, the latter purely by multiple hadron emissions, with 1/2 moments of opposite sign in the region of the light-cone momentum fraction z accessible in current experiments. Hints of such behavior has been seen in the measurements in several experiments. Also, in the transverse momentum dependent (TMD) hadron emission probabilities, modulations of up to fourth order in sine of the polar angle were observed, while the Collins effect describes just the linear modulations. A crucial part of the extended model was the calculation of the quark spin flip probability after each hadron emission in the jet. Here we study the effects of this probability on the resulting unfavored and favored Collins functions by setting it as a constant and use a toy model for the elementary single hadron emission probabilities. The results of the Monte Carlo simulations showed that preferential quark spin flip in the elementary hadron emission is needed to generate the favored and unfavored Collins functions with opposite sign 1/2 moments. For the TMD hadron emission modulations, we showed that the model quark spin flip probabilities are a partial source of the higher rode modulations, while the other source is the Collins modulation of the remnant quark from the hadron emission recoil.

Dihadron fragmentation functions from the NJL-jet model and their QCD evolution

We present results for dihadron fragmentation functions from the Nambu--Jona-Lasinio-jet model evolved from the model scale to a typical experimental scale of $4\text{ }\text{ }{\mathrm{GeV}}^{2}$. The numerical method used in this evolution is discussed in detail. The effect of evolution on the shapes of the dihadron fragmentation functions is discussed for a doubly favored process ($u\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{\ensuremath{\pi}}^{+}{\ensuremath{\pi}}^{\ensuremath{-}}$), as well as a singly favored ($u\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{\ensuremath{\pi}}^{+}{K}^{\ensuremath{-}}$) process involving light quarks. Finally, we explore the production of ${K}^{+}{K}^{\ensuremath{-}}$ pairs from an initial $u$, $d$ or $s$ quark.

Collins fragmentation function within the NJL-jet model

The NJL-jet model is extended to accommodate hadronization of a transversely polarized quark in order to explore the Collins effect within a multihadron emission framework. This is accomplished by calculating the polarized quark spin flip probabilities after a pseudoscalar hadron emission and the elementary Collins functions. The model is used to calculate the number densities of the hadrons produced in the polarized quark's decay chain. The full Collins fragmentation function is extracted from the sine modulation of the polarized number densities with respect to the polar angle between the initial quark's spin and hadron's transverse momentum. Two cases are studied here. First, a toy model for elementary Collins function is used to study the features of the transversely polarized quark-jet model. Second, a full model calculation of transverse momentum dependent pion and kaon Collins functions is presented. The remarkable feature of our model is that the 1/2 moments of the favored Collins fragmentation functions are positive and peak at large values of z but decrease and oscillate at small values of z. The 1/2 moments of the unfavored Collins functions have comparable magnitude and opposite sign to the favored functions, vanish at large z and peak at small values of z. This feature is observed for both the toy and full models and can be attributed to the quark-jet picture of hadronization. Moreover, the transverse momentum dependencies of the model Collins functions differ significantly from the Gaussian form widely used in the empirical parametrizations. Finally, a naive interpretation of the Schafer-Teryaev sum rule is proven not to hold in our model, where the transverse momentum conservation is explicitly enforced. This is attributed to the sizable average transverse momentum of the remnant quark that needs to be accounted for to satisfy the transverse momentum sum-rule.

Calculating dihadron fragmentation functions in the Nambu–Jona-Lasinio–jet model

The NJL-jet model provides a framework for calculating fragmentation functions without the introduction of ad hoc parameters. We develop the NJL-jet model to investigate dihadron fragmentation functions (DFFs) of the form $D^{h_1 h_2}_q(z_1,z_2)$. Here we studied DFFs for $q \to \{\pi^+ \pi^-\}$, $\{\pi^+ K^-\}$, and $\{K^+ K^-\}$,with $q = u, d, s$. The driving terms, which represent the probability of one of the hadrons being emitted in the first emission step of the quark-jet hadronization picture, dominate the solutions of the DFFs where either $z_1$ or $z_2$ is large, and $z_1$ ($z_2$) is the light-cone momentum fraction of the emitted hadron, $h_1$ ($h_2$). The higher order terms, which represent the probability of neither of the hadrons being emitted in the first emission step of the quark-jet, become more significant as $z_1$ ($z_2$) is lowered. Finally, we present a sample result for QCD evolution of DFFs, that significantly modify the model solutions when evolved to typical hadronic scale of $4 \mathrm{GeV}^2$.

Calculating kaon fragmentation functions from the Nambu–Jona-Lasinio jet model

The Nambu--Jona-Lasinio (NJL)-jet model provides a sound framework for calculating the fragmentation functions in an effective chiral quark theory, where the momentum and isospin sum rules are satisfied without the introduction of ad hoc parameters. Earlier studies of the pion fragmentation functions using the NJL model within this framework showed qualitative agreement with the empirical parametrizations. Here we extend the NJL-jet model by including the strange quark. The corrections to the pion fragmentation functions and corresponding kaon fragmentation functions are calculated using the elementary quark to quark-meson fragmentation functions from NJL. The results for the kaon fragmentation functions exhibit a qualitative agreement with the empirical parametrizations, while the unfavored strange quark fragmentation to pions is shown to be of the same order of magnitude as the unfavored light quark. The results of these studies are expected to provide important guidance for the analysis of a large variety of semi-inclusive data.

NJL-jet model for quark fragmentation functions

A description of fragmentation functions which satisfy the momentum and isospin sum rules is presented in an effective quark theory. Concentrating on the pion fragmentation function, we first explain why the elementary (lowest order) fragmentation process $q\ensuremath{\rightarrow}q\ensuremath{\pi}$ is completely inadequate to describe the empirical data, although the crossed process $\ensuremath{\pi}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}q\overline{q}$ describes the quark distribution functions in the pion reasonably well. Taking into account cascadelike processes in a generalized jet-model approach, we then show that the momentum and isospin sum rules can be satisfied naturally, without the introduction of ad hoc parameters. We present results for the Nambu--Jona-Lasinio (NJL) model in the invariant mass regularization scheme and compare them with the empirical parametrizations. We argue that the NJL-jet model, developed herein, provides a useful framework with which to calculate the fragmentation functions in an effective chiral quark theory.