No Arabic abstract
In the TMD approach, the average transverse momentum of the unpolarised TMD PDFs and FFs is crucial not only to reproduce unpolarised cross sections and hadron multiplicities, but also for the understanding of azimuthal and spin asymmetries. Information on these transverse momenta is nowadays obtained mainly by fitting multiplicities data for SIDIS, where the intrinsic motion in the initial parton distributions and in the hadronisation process are strongly correlated and difficult to estimate separately without ambiguities. In this contribution we discuss the consequences of this correlation effects on the predictions for the Sivers and Collins asymmetries measured in SIDIS and $e^+e^-$ annihilations, and under active investigation for Drell-Yan processes at RHIC and at CERN by the COMPASS experiment. We show that these effects may be relevant and can sensibly modify the size of the predicted asymmetries. Therefore, they must be taken into careful account when investigating other aspects of TMDs, like the evolution properties of the Sivers and Collins functions and the expected process dependence of the Sivers function.
Information on the Sivers distribution and the Collins fragmentation functions and their transverse momentum dependence is mainly based on fitting single spin asymmetry data from semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering (SIDIS). Independent information, respectively on the Sivers distribution and the Collins fragmentation, can be obtained from Drell-Yan and $e^+e^-$ annihilation processes. In the SIDIS case, the transverse momentum of the final observed hadron, which is the quantity measured, is generated both by the average transverse momentum in the distribution and in the fragmentation functions. As a consequence, these are strongly correlated and a separate extraction is made difficult. In this paper we investigate, in a simple kinematical Gaussian configuration, this correlation, its role on the transverse single spin asymmetries in SIDIS and the consequences for predictions of the Sivers asymmetry in Drell-Yan processes and for the Collins asymmetry in $e^+e^-$ annihilation. We find that, in some cases, these effects can be relevant and must be carefully taken into account.
In this paper we calculate analytically the perturbative matching coefficients for unpolarized quark and gluon Transverse-Momentum-Dependent (TMD) Parton Distribution Functions (PDFs) and Fragmentation Functions (FFs) through Next-to-Next-to-Next-to-Leading Order (N$^3$LO) in QCD. The N$^3$LO TMD PDFs are calculated by solving a system of differential equation of Feynman and phase space integrals. The TMD FFs are obtained by analytic continuation from space-like quantities to time-like quantities, taking into account the probability interpretation of TMD PDFs and FFs properly. The coefficient functions for TMD FFs exhibit double logarithmic enhancement at small momentum fraction $z$. We resum such logarithmic terms to the third order in the expansion of $alpha_s$. Our results constitute important ingredients for precision determination of TMD PDFs and FFs in current and future experiments.
We review the information on the spin and orbital angular momentum structure of the nucleon encoded in the T-even transverse momentum dependent parton distributions within light-cone quark models. Model results for azimuthal spin asymmetries in semi-inclusive lepton-nucleon deep-inelastic scattering are discussed, showing a good agreement with available experimental data and providing predictions to be further tested by future CLAS, COMPASS and HERMES data.
The transverse momentum dependent (TMD) and collinear higher twist theoretical factorization frameworks are the most frequently used approaches to describing spin dependent hard cross sections weighted by and integrated over transverse momentum. Of particular interest is the contribution from small transverse momentum associated with the target bound state. In phenomenological applications, this contribution is often investigated using transverse momentum weighted integrals that sharply regulate the large transverse momentum contribution, for example with Gaussian parametrizations. Since the result is a kind of hybrid of TMD and collinear (inclusive) treatments, it is important to establish if and how the formalisms are related in applications to weighted integral observables. The suppression of a large transverse momentum tail, for example, can potentially affect the type of evolution that is applicable. We find that a naive version of a widely used identity relating the $k_T^2$-weighted and integrated Sivers TMD function to a renormalized twist-3 function has strongly ambiguous ultraviolet contributions, and that corrections to it are not necessarily perturbatively suppressed. We discuss the implications for applications, arguing in particular that the relevant evolution for transverse momentum weighted and integrated cross sections with sharp effective large transverse momentum cutoffs is of the TMD form rather than the standard renormalization group evolution of collinear correlation functions.
New data on the Sivers azimuthal asymmetry measured in semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering processes have recently been released by the COMPASS Collaboration at CERN. Their increased precision and their particular binning, in terms of $Q^2$ as well as $x$, motivates a new extraction of the Sivers function, within the framework of a simple and transparent parametrization. Signals of TMD effects visible in the Sivers asymmetries are critically assessed. A thorough study of the uncertainties affecting the extracted Sivers function is presented, including the low-$x$ and large-$x$ regions.