ON THE FRAGMENTATION FUNCTION FOR HEAVY QUARKS IN E(-) COLLISIONS()E()

We use a recent O(alpha(s)(2)) calculation of the differential cross s ection for the production of heavy quarks in e(+)e(-) annihilation to compute a few moments of the heavy quark single-inclusive production c ross section. We verify that, contrary to some recent claims, the lead ing and next-to-leading logarithmic terms in this cross section are co rrectly given by the standard NLO fragmentation function formalism for heavy quark production. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.