A Possible Resolution of the Strange Quark Polarization Puzzle ?

The strange quark polarization puzzle, i.e. the contradiction between the negative polarized strange quark density obtained from analyses of inclusive deep inelastic scattering data and the positive values obtained from combined analyses of inclusive and semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering data using de Florian, Sassot, Stratmann fragmentation functions, is discussed. To this end the results of a new combined next-to-leading order QCD analysis of the polarized inclusive and semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering data, using the Hirai, Kumano, Nagai, Sudoh (HKNS) fragmentation functions, are presented. It is demonstrated that the polarized strange quark density is very sensitive to the kaon fragmentation functions, and if the set of HKNS fragmentation functions is used, the polarized strange quark density obtained from the combined analysis turns out to be negative and well consistent with values obtained from the pure deep inelastic scattering analyses.