Speaker
Description
Photon-photon scattering provides a promising and largely unexplored channel to investigate the three-dimensional structure of hadronization and, more specifically, to access transverse momentum dependent fragmentation functions (TMD FFs), complementing information currently extracted from semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering and $e^+e^-$ annihilation. We consider two-photon interactions as a novel probe of TMD fragmentation mechanisms and study two-hadron azimuthal asymmetries around the jet thrust axis in the process $\gamma\gamma \to q\bar q \to h_1 h_2 + X$. Our analysis highlights the potential of photon-photon collisions as a clean and complementary environment for investigating spin and transverse momentum dynamics in hadronization. Such processes could be studied in ultraperipheral collisions at the LHC, where intense electromagnetic fields generate high-energy photon-photon interactions, and may also be explored at future facilities such as the Electron-Ion Collider, offering further opportunities to investigate fragmentation dynamics in photon-induced processes.