No Arabic abstract
We report on the first measurement of double-spin asymmetry, A_LL, of electrons from the decays of hadrons containing heavy flavor in longitudinally polarized p+p collisions at sqrt(s)=200 GeV for p_T= 0.5 to 3.0 GeV/c. The asymmetry was measured at mid-rapidity (|eta|<0.35) with the PHENIX detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. The measured asymmetries are consistent with zero within the statistical errors. We obtained a constraint for the polarized gluon distribution in the proton of |Delta g/g(log{_10}x= -1.6^+0.5_-0.4, {mu}=m_T^c)|^2 < 0.033 (1 sigma), based on a leading-order perturbative-quantum-chromodynamics model, using the measured asymmetry.
The cross section and transverse single-spin asymmetries of $mu^{-}$ and $mu^{+}$ from open heavy-flavor decays in polarized $p$+$p$ collisions at $sqrt{s}=200$ GeV were measured by the PHENIX experiment during 2012 at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. Because heavy-flavor production is dominated by gluon-gluon interactions at $sqrt{s}=200$ GeV, these measurements offer a unique opportunity to obtain information on the trigluon correlation functions. The measurements are performed at forward and backward rapidity ($1.4<|y|<2.0$) over the transverse momentum range of $1.25<p_T<7$ GeV/$c$ for the cross section and $1.25<p_T<5$ GeV/$c$ for the asymmetry measurements. The obtained cross section is compared to a fixed-order-plus-next-to-leading-log perturbative-quantum-chromodynamics calculation. The asymmetry results are consistent with zero within uncertainties, and a model calculation based on twist-3 three-gluon correlations agrees with the data.
The differential cross section for the production of direct photons in p+p collisions at sqrt(s)=200 GeV at midrapidity was measured in the PHENIX detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. Inclusive-direct photons were measured in the transverse-momentum range from 5.5--25 GeV/c, extending the range beyond previous measurements. Event structure was studied with an isolation criterion. Next-to-leading-order perturbative-quantum-chromodynamics calculations give a good description of the spectrum. When the cross section is expressed versus x_T, the PHENIX data are seen to be in agreement with measurements from other experiments at different center-of-mass energies.
We present a measurement of the cross section and transverse single-spin asymmetry ($A_N$) for $eta$ mesons at large pseudorapidity from $sqrt{s}=200$~GeV $p^{uparrow}+p$ collisions. The measured cross section for $0.5<p_T<5.0$~GeV/$c$ and $3.0<|eta|<3.8$ is well described by a next-to-leading-order perturbative-quantum-chromodynamics calculation. The asymmetries $A_N$ have been measured as a function of Feynman-$x$ ($x_F$) from $0.2<|x_{F}|<0.7$, as well as transverse momentum ($p_T$) from $1.0<p_T<4.5$~GeV/$c$. The asymmetry averaged over positive $x_F$ is $langle{A_{N}}rangle=0.061{pm}0.014$. The results are consistent with prior transverse single-spin measurements of forward $eta$ and $pi^{0}$ mesons at various energies in overlapping $x_F$ ranges. Comparison of different particle species can help to determine the origin of the large observed asymmetries in $p^{uparrow}+p$ collisions.
We report on event structure and double helicity asymmetry ($A_LL$) of jet production in longitudinally polarized p+p collisions at $sqrt{s}$=200 GeV. Photons and charged particles were measured at midrapidity $|eta| < 0.35$ with the requirement of a high-momentum ($>2$ GeV/$c$) photon in each event. Measured event structure is compared with {sc pythia} and {sc geant} simulations. The shape of jets and the underlying event were well reproduced at this collision energy. For the measurement of jet $A_{LL}$, photons and charged particles were clustered with a seed-cone algorithm to obtain the cluster $p_T$ sum ($p_T^{rm reco}$). The effect of detector response and the underlying events on $p_T^{rm reco}$ was evaluated with the simulation. The production rate of reconstructed jets is satisfactorily reproduced with the NLO pQCD jet production cross section. For $4 < p_T^{rm reco} < 12$ GeV/$c$ with an average beam polarization of $< P > = 49%$ we measured $A_{LL} = -0.0014 pm 0.0037^{rm stat}$ at the lowest $p_T^{rm reco}$ bin (4-5 GeV/$c$) and $-0.0181 pm 0.0282^{rm stat}$ at the highest $p_T^{rm reco}$ bin (10-12 GeV/$c$) with a beam polarization scale error of 9.4% and a $pT$ scale error of 10%. Jets in the measured $p_T^{rm reco}$ range arise primarily from hard-scattered gluons with momentum fraction $0.02 < x < 0.3$ according to {sc pythia}. The measured $A_{LL}$ is compared with predictions that assume various $Delta G(x)$ distributions based on the GRSV parameterization. The present result imposes the limit $-1.1 < int_{0.02}^{0.3}dx Delta G(x, mu^2 = 1 {rm GeV}^2) < 0.4$ at 95% confidence level or $int_{0.02}^{0.3}dx Delta G(x, mu^2 = 1 {rm GeV}^2) < 0.5$ at 99% confidence level.
We report on charmonium measurements [J/psi(1S), psi(2S), and chi_c(1P)] in p+p collisions at sqrt(s)=200 GeV. We find that the fraction of J/psi coming from the feed-down decay of psi and chi_c in the midrapidity region ($|eta|<0.35$) is 9.6+/-2.4% and 32+/-9%, respectively. We also report new, higher statistics p_T and rapidity dependencies of the J/psi yield via dielectron decay in the same midrapidity range and at forward rapidity (1.2<|eta|<2.4) via dimuon decay. These results are compared with measurements from other experiments and discussed in the context of current charmonium production models.