  Gluonic pole matrix elements explain the appearance of single spin
asymmetries (SSA) in high-energy scattering processes. They involve a
combination of operators which are odd under time reversal (T-odd). Such matrix
elements appear in principle both for parton distribution functions and parton
fragmentation functions. We show that for parton fragmentation functions these
gluonic pole matrix elements vanish as a consequence of the analytic structure
of scattering amplitudes in Quantum Chromodynamics. This result is important in
the study of the universality of transverse momentum dependent (TMD)
fragmentation functions.
