Global Analysis of Fragmentation Functions for Eta Mesons

C. A. Aidala, F. Ellinghaus, R. Sassot, J. P. Seele, M. Stratmann

Published 2010-09-30, updated 2010-10-05Version 2

Fragmentation functions for eta mesons are extracted at next-to-leading order accuracy of QCD in a global analysis of data taken in electron-positron annihilation and proton-proton scattering experiments. The obtained parametrization is in good agreement with all data sets analyzed and can be utilized, for instance, in future studies of double-spin asymmetries for single-inclusive eta production. The Lagrange multiplier technique is used to estimate the uncertainties of the fragmentation functions and to assess the role of the different data sets in constraining them.