English

Small-$x$ factorisation in the target fragmentation region

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology 2026-02-05 v3 Nuclear Theory

Abstract

We consider the differential cross-section for single-inclusive jet production with transverse momentum PP_\perp in Deep Inelastic Scattering (DIS) at small Bjorken xBjx_{\rm Bj}, mediated by a virtual photon with virtuality Q2Q^2. Unlike most studies at small xx, which focus on particle production in the current fragmentation region, we investigate the kinematic regime where the jet is produced in the target fragmentation hemisphere of the Breit frame, and with PQP_\perp \ll Q. For a longitudinally polarised photon, we demonstrate that this cross-section is not power suppressed in P/QP_\perp/Q and we derive a factorised expression in terms of extended quark and gluon jet fracture functions. Our formula, valid at next-to-leading order in αs\alpha_s at small xx, is akin to the Altarelli-Martinelli identity for the longitudinal DIS structure function. Numerical estimates show that the extended quark jet fracture function is the most sensitive to saturation effects in large nuclei.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2502.02634,
  title  = {Small-$x$ factorisation in the target fragmentation region},
  author = {Paul Caucal and Farid Salazar},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2502.02634},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

8 pages, 3 figures, 1 supplemental material, version accepted in Physical Review Letters

R2 v1 2026-06-28T21:32:36.150Z