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Higher-twist effects in inclusive electron-positron annihilation

Jing Zhao1, Yongjie Deng1, Tianbo Liu1,2,*, and Weihua Yang3,†

  • 1Key Laboratory of Particle Physics and Particle Irradiation (MOE), Institute of Frontier and Interdisciplinary Science, Shandong University, Qingdao, Shandong 266237, China
  • 2Southern Center for Nuclear-Science Theory (SCNT), Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Huizhou 516000, China
  • 3College of Nuclear Equipment and Nuclear Engineering, Yantai University, Yantai, Shandong 264005, China

  • *Contact author: liutb@sdu.edu.cn
  • †Contact author: yangwh@ytu.edu.cn
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Phys. Rev. D 114, 074016 – Published 6 October, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/d6xz-1xr6

Abstract

We establish a comprehensive theoretical framework for the electron-positron single-inclusive annihilation (SIA) process that incorporates higher-twist contributions up to twist-4 and investigate the possible relevance of these effects in low-energy reactions. Through a systematic collinear expansion of the hadronic tensor, we derive the complete set of structure functions in terms of collinear fragmentation functions (FFs), explicitly including multiparton correlators up to the four-parton level. To evaluate the possible impact of these power corrections, we estimate the twist-4 unpolarized FF D3 using a spectator model and compute the normalized differential cross section for π0 production. Our illustrative numerical estimation indicates that the interplay between kinematic hadron mass corrections and the higher-twist D3 contribution can partially improve the description of recent BESIII data in the relatively low-z region. The Q-dependence of this contribution is consistent with the expected power suppression of twist-4 terms. These findings suggest that higher-twist contributions are relevant for studies of hadronization dynamics at low energies and motivate more complete future analyses including all twist-4 FFs.

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Phys. Rev. D 114, 074016– Published 6 October, 2026
  • Received 25 February 2026
  • Accepted 18 September 2026
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