Quark transversity distribution in perturbative QCD: light-front Hamiltonian approach

To resolve the current ambiguity in the splitting function corresponding to the quark transversity distribution h(1)(x), we calculate h(1)(x) for a dr essed quark in light-front Hamiltonian perturbation theory. Our result agre es with the expected form of the splitting function found in the literature and disagrees with the recent calculation in M. Meyer-Hermann et al., hep- ph/0012226. We emphasize the importance of quark mass in h(1)(x) in perturb ative QCD and show its connection with a part of g(T). (C) 2001 Elsevier Sc ience B.V. All rights reserved.