Final state interactions in quark fragmentation may give origin to non zero values of the off-diagonal element rho_(1,-1) of the helicity density matrix of vector mesons V produced in current jets, with a large energy fraction x_E; the value of rho_(1,-1)(V) is related to the hard constituent dynamics and tests unusual properties of it. Some recent data on phi, K^* and D^* produced in e^+ e^- annihilations at LEP show such effects. Predictions are given here for rho_(1,-1) of heavy mesons produced in nucleon-nucleon, gamma-nucleon and lepton-nucleon interactions.
Categories: hep-ph