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Fragmentation Functions of Charged Hadrons at Next-to-Next-to-Leading Order and Constraints on the Proton Parton Distribution Functions

Jun Gao1,*, XiaoMin Shen2,1,†, Hongxi Xing3,4,5,‡, Yuxiang Zhao2,5,6,7,§, and Bin Zhou1,∥

  • 1State Key Laboratory of Dark Matter Physics, Shanghai Key Laboratory for Particle Physics and Cosmology, Key Laboratory for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (MOE), School of Physics and Astronomy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
  • 2Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, Gansu 730000, China
  • 3State Key Laboratory of Nuclear Physics and Technology, Institute of Quantum Matter, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, China
  • 4Guangdong Basic Research Center of Excellence for Structure and Fundamental Interactions of Matter, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Nuclear Science, Guangzhou 510006, China
  • 5Southern Center for Nuclear-Science Theory (SCNT), Institute of Modern Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Huizhou 516000, China
  • 6University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
  • 7Key Laboratory of Quark and Lepton Physics (MOE) and Institute of Particle Physics, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China

  • *Contact author: jung49@sjtu.edu.cn
  • †Contact author: xiaominshen@impcas.ac.cn
  • ‡Contact author: hxing@m.scnu.edu.cn
  • §Contact author: yxzhao@impcas.ac.cn
  • ∥Contact author: zb0429@sjtu.edu.cn
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 041902 – Published 24 July, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/mcwy-b221

Abstract

We present the first global analysis of fragmentation functions for light charged hadrons (π±, K±) at full next-to-next-to-leading order in quantum chromodynamics, incorporating world data from both single-inclusive electron-positron annihilation and semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering. The collinear factorization has been tested with low-momentum-transfer data and has demonstrated success at high hadron momenta. Additionally, we study the impact of current global data on hadron production to the parton distribution functions (PDFs), and find they favor a reduced asymmetry in the strange (anti)quark PDFs, as compared to the asymmetry predicted by state-of-the-art PDFs derived from inclusive data.

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Phys. Rev. Lett. 135, 041902– Published 24 July, 2025
  • Received 6 March 2025
  • Revised 25 May 2025
  • Accepted 10 July 2025
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