Measurements of quark fragmentation using kaons produced in association with prompt \(D_{(s)}^+\) mesons at CDF

We report the first study of quark fragmentation through identification of kaons produced during the fragmentation of charm quarks, produced in \(1.96\,\mathrm{TeV}\) \(p\bar{p}\) collisions, to form \(D_s^+\) or \(D^+\) mesons. We apply particle identification techniques to measure the fraction of events in which a track produced in association with the prompt charm meson is a kaon and compare the observed kinematic properties with predictions of fragmentation models implemented in standard Monte Carlo event generators providing valuable validation and tuning information.