Coherent versus incoherent quark fragmentation picture

We study the helicity density matrix of vector mesons produced ine ⁺ e ^? interactions at high energies through the two step process \(e^ + e^ - \to q\bar q \to VX\) . Whereas in the usual incoherent fragmentation picture in which each quark decays independently, ρ(V) is predicted to be diagonal, we find that final state interactions (coherent fragmentation) give rise to a non-vanishing ρ_1-1(V). Various corrections to the standard picture such as, e.g., gluon bremsstrahlung, quark masses, transverse momenta, are shown to be small. Therefore, any significant non-zero value of ρ_1-1(V) found experimentally can be considered as a clear measurement of coherence effects.