Transverse-momentum-dependent Multiplicities of Charged Hadrons in Muon-Deuteron Deep Inelastic Scattering

A semi-inclusive measurement of charged hadron multiplicities in deep inelastic muon scattering off an isoscalar target was performed using data collected by the COMPASS Collaboration at CERN. The following kinematic domain is covered by the data: photon virtuality Q2>1  (GeV/c)2, invariant mass of the hadronic system W>5  GeV/c2, Bjorken scaling variable in the range 0.003<x<0.4, fraction of the virtual photon energy carried by the hadron in the range 0.2<z<0.8, and square of the hadron transverse momentum with respect to the virtual photon direction in the range 0.02  (GeV/c)2<PhT2<3  (GeV/c)2. The multiplicities are presented as a function of PhT2 in three-dimensional bins of x, Q2, z and compared to previous semi-inclusive measurements. We explore the small-PhT2 region, i.e. PhT2<1  (GeV/c)2, where hadron transverse momenta are expected to arise from nonperturbative effects, and also the domain of larger PhT2, where contributions from higher-order perturbative QCD are expected to dominate. The multiplicities are fitted using a single-exponential function at small PhT2 to study the dependence of the average transverse momentum ⟨PhT2⟩ on x, Q2 and z. The power-law behavior of the multiplicities at large PhT2 is investigated using various functional forms. The fits describe the data reasonably well over the full measured range.Peer Reviewe

Multiplicities of charged kaons from deep-inelastic muon scattering off an isoscalar target

Precise measurements of charged-kaon multiplicities in deep inelastic scattering were performed. The results are presented in three-dimensional bins of the Bjorken scaling variable x, the relative virtual-photon energy y, and the fraction z of the virtual-photon energy carried by the produced hadron. The data were obtained by the COMPASS Collaboration by scattering 160 GeV muons off an isoscalar 6 LiD target. They cover the kinematic domain 1 (GeV/c)2 5 GeV/c^2 in the invariant mass of the hadronic system. The results from the sum of the z-integrated K+ and K- multiplicities at high x point to a value of the non-strange quark fragmentation function larger than obtained by the earlier DSS fit.Peer Reviewe