Exploring Hadronization Mechanisms with SIDIS Production off Nuclei

Over the last few decades, several hard interactions studies have been dedicated to understand the basic mechanisms of color propagation and hadron production in nuclei. The process referred to as hadronization or fragmentation, in which the energetic struck quark transforms to color-neutral hadrons, is an effective way to probe the confinement dynamics of Quantum Chromo-Dynamics, the theory of strong interactions, and shed light on the non-perturbative formation of observed hadrons. This talk will discuss the first-ever analysis of the semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering (SIDIS) of $Lambda$ hyperons in the current and target fragmentation regions using various nuclear-target data-sets collected with the Jefferson lab 6 GeV beam energy and the CLAS detector. Results on hadronic multiplicity ratios and transverse momentum broadening will be presented along with a qualitative discussion of other CLAS6 meson studies. The measured observables are sensitive to both fragmentation stages and could potentially constrain the existing theoretical models with different predictions about the hadronization time-scales. The extracted results of the CLAS6 SIDIS production channels in addition to the upcoming color propagation studies with the Jefferson lab CLAS12 detector would potentially improve our understanding of nucleon structure as well as the space-time evolution of hadrons at intermediate energies.