Simplified parent-child formalism for spin-0 and spin-1/2 parents

Abstract

We develop further the parent-child relation, that is the calculation of the cross-sections and correlations of observed particles, typically charged leptons, arising from the decay of long-lived primarily produced “parent” particles. In the high-momentum regime, when the momenta of parent and child are closely aligned, we show how, for spinless parents, the relation can be simplified by the introduction of “fragmentation” functions derived from the invariant inclusive decay distributions. We extend the formalism to the case of spin-1/2 parents and advocate its application to charm production and decay at the quark level.