NONPERTURBATIVE CORRECTIONS TO HEAVY-QUARK FRAGMENTATION IN E(-) ANNIHILATION()E()

We estimate the non-perturbative power-suppressed corrections to heavy flavour fragmentation and correlation functions in e(+)e(-) annihilat ion, using a model based on the analysis of one-loop Feynman graphs co ntaining a massive, gluon. This approach corresponds to the study of i nfrared renormalons in the large-n(f) limit of QCD, or to the assumpti on of an infrared-finite effective coupling at low scales, We find tha t the leading corrections to the heavy quark fragmentation function ar e of order lambda/M, where lambda is a typical hadronic scale (lambda similar to 0.4 GeV) and M is the heavy quark mass. The inclusion of hi gher corrections corresponds to convolution with a universal function of M(1 - x) concentrated at values of its argument of order lambda, in agreement with intuitive expectations. On the other hand, corrections to heavy quark correlations are very small,of the order of (lambda/Q) (p), where Q is the centre-of-mass energy and p greater than or equal to 2. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.