Probing nucleons spin structures with polarized Drell-Yan in the Fermilab SpinQuest experiment


Abstract in English

Although the proton was discovered about 100 years ago, its spin structure still remains a mystery. Recent studies suggest that the orbital angular momentum of sea quarks could significantly contribute to the protons spin. The SeaQuest experiment, which recently completed data collection, probed the unpolarized light quark sea distributions of the proton using the Drell-Yan process. Its successor, the SpinQuest (E1039), will access the $bar{u}$ and $bar{d}$ Sivers functions using polarized NH$_3$ and ND$_3$ targets. A non-zero Sivers asymmetry, observed in SpinQuest, would be a strong indication of non-zero sea-quark orbital angular momentum. The SpinQuest experiment can also probe the sea quarks transversity distribution, which is relevant for the determination of protons tensor charge. Recent study suggests that sea-quarks might contribute significantly to deuterons tensor polarized structure functions. This can be further probed in SpinQuest using tensor polarized ND$_3$ target. The current status and future plan of the experiment are presented.

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