Transverse momentum dependence of semi-inclusive pion production

Abstract

Cross sections for semi-inclusive electroproduction of charged pions (π±) from both proton and deuteron targets were measured for 0.2<x<0.5, 2<Q2<4 GeV2, 0.3<z<1, and Pt2<0.2 GeV2. For Pt<0.1 GeV, we find the azimuthal dependence to be small, as expected theoretically. For both π+ and π−, the Pt dependence from the deuteron is found to be slightly weaker than from the proton. In the context of a simple model, this implies that the initial transverse momenta width of d quarks is larger than for u quarks and, contrary to expectations, the transverse momentum width of the favored fragmentation function is larger than the unfavored one.