Dihadron fragmentation functions and their relevance for transverse spin studies

Abstract

Dihadron fragmentation functions describe the probability that a quark fragments into two hadrons plus other undetected hadrons. In particular, the so-called interference fragmentation functions describe the azimuthal asymmetry of the dihadron distribution when the quark is transversely polarized. They can be used as tools to probe the quark transversity distribution in the nucleon. Recent studies on unpolarized and polarized dihadron fragmentation functions are presented, and we discuss their role in giving insights into transverse spin distributions.

To appear in the proceedings of the 19th International Spin Physics Symposium, Sept 27 - Oct 2, 2010, Juelich, Germany. To be published in JPCS