Neutral-Kaon Production in e^+e^-, ep, and p\bar p Collisions at Next-to-Leading Order

Abstract

We present new sets of fragmentation functions for neutral kaons, both at leading and next-to-leading order. They are fitted to data on inclusive K^0 production in e^+e^- annihilation taken by MARK II at PEP (\sqrt s = 29 GeV) and by ALEPH at LEP. Our fragmentation functions lead to a good description of other e^+e^- data on inclusive K^0 production at various energies. They also nicely agree with the K_S^0 transverse-momentum spectra measured by H1 at the DESY ep collider HERA, by UA5 at the CERN Sp\bar pS Collider, and by CDF at the Fermilab Tevatron.