SPIN ALIGNMENT IN THE PRODUCTION OF CHARM AND/OR BOTTOM VECTOR-MESONS VIA HEAVY-QUARK FRAGMENTATION

We calculate the process-independent fragmentation functions for a b ($) over bar; antiquark to fragment into longitudinally and transversely polarized B-c(*) (S-3(1)) mesons to leading order in the QCD strong coupling constant. In the special case of equal quark mass, we recover previous results for the fragmentation of c --> psi and b --> gamma. Various spin asymmetry parameters are defined as measures of the relative population of the longitudinally and transversely polarized vector meson states. In the heavy quark mass limit m(b) --> infinity, our polarized fragmentation functions obey heavy quark spin symmetry, we therefore apply them as a model to describe the fragmentation of charm and bottom quarks into heavy-light mesons like D-* and B-*. The spin asymmetry parameter, alpha(z), is consistent with the existing CLEO data for D-*. The scaling behavior of (z) is studied in detail. We find excellent agreement between the predictions of (z) from our fragmentation functions and the experimental data for D-* and B-* from the CERN LEP, CLEO, and ARGUS detectors. Finally, we also point out that the spin asymmetry depends significantly on the transverse momentum p perpendicular to of the vector mesons relative to the fragmentation axis.