Transversely polarized baryon-antibaryon production in e−e+ collisions

Transversely polarized baryon-antibaryon (in particular Λ-Λ) back-to-back production in e−e+ collisions is studied. Higher order (one-loop) corrections (HOC) are determined and K-factors well exceeding unity are found. For the two cases that the spin vectors of Λ and Λ are: (a) on the production plane and (b) perpendicular to it, the differential inclusive cross sections are found to have opposite sign; this feature is characteristic of the process both at the Born and one-loop level, and is independent of the magnitude and shape of the fragmentation functions or other aspects of the calculation. The dominance of HOC by soft, collinear and virtual gluons is also considered.