Time-Like heavy-flavour thresholds for fragmentation functions: the light-quark matching condition at NNLO

Abstract Matching conditions are universal ingredients that describe how fragmentation functions change when heavy-flavour thresholds are crossed during the factorisation scale evolution. They are the last missing piece for a consistent description of observables with identified final-state hadrons at next-to-next-to leading order accuracy in quantum chromodynamics. We present an analytical form of the matching condition for light-flavour to hadron fragmentation function at next-to-next-to leading order. The derivation is performed by extending the formalism employed in the extraction of the next-to leading order matching conditions to the subsequent order, making use of $$e^+e^-$$ e + e - annihilation cross sections. We obtain the first non-trivial heavy-quark effect in the light-quark fragmentation functions and provide results in Mellin space.