No Arabic abstract
We present estimates of transverse single-spin asymmetry in prompt photon production in the scattering of low virtuality photons off a polarized proton target and discuss the possibility of using this as a probe to get information about the gluon Sivers function (GSF). Using a generalized parton model (GPM) framework, we estimate the asymmetries at electron-ion collider energy ($sqrt{s}$ =140 GeV) taking into account both direct and resolved photon processes and find that the dominant contribution, up to $10%$, comes from quark Sivers function (QSF) while the contribution from GSF is found to be up to $2%$. However, upon taking into account the effects of the process-dependent initial and final state interactions through the color-gauge invariant generalized parton model approach we find that the situation is significantly changed, with near zero contributions from the QSFs and up to a $1%$ level contribution from the textit{f}-type GSF. Our results indicate that this process may be useful for distinguishing between GPM and color-gauge invariant generalized parton models and can be used as a good probe of textit{f}-type GSF.
We present a study of transverse single-spin asymmetries (SSAs) in $p^uparrow pto J/psi,X$ and $p^uparrow pto D X$ within the framework of the generalized parton model (GPM), which includes both spin and transverse momentum effects, and show how they can provide useful information on the still almost unknown gluon Sivers function. Moreover, by adopting a modified version of this model, named color gauge invariant (CGI) GPM, we analyze the impact of the initial- and final-state interactions on our predictions. As a consequence, we find that these two processes are sensitive to different gluon Sivers functions, which can be expressed as linear combinations of two distinct, universal gluon distributions. We therefore define proper observables which could allow for a separate extraction of these two independent Sivers functions. At the same time, we show how it would be possible to discriminate between the GPM and the CGI-GPM approaches by comparing the corresponding estimates of SSAs with present and future experimental results at RHIC.
We report on a recent investigation of the single spin asymmetry (SSA) in low virtuality electroproduction of $J/psi$ in color evaporation model. We show that this can be used as a probe for the still unknown gluon Sivers function.
We suggest inclusive hadron production in ultra-peripheral proton-nucleus collisions (UPCs) $p^uparrow A to h AX$ as a new channel to investigate single spin asymmetries (SSAs), in particular, to test the assumed dominance of the contribution from twist-three fragmentation functions. The UPC cross sections are obtained by considering the photoproduction limit of semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering (SIDIS). In particular, we find simple formulas for the polarized UPC cross sections in the collinear twist-three framework. We then numerically calculate the fragmentation contribution to SSA in $p^uparrow A to pi A X$ at $sqrt{s} = 200$ GeV and find a few percent asymmetry in the forward region.
We consider the transverse single-spin asymmetry (SSA) for $J/psi$ production in $p^uparrow p to J/psi + X$ within a TMD approach in non-relativistic QCD. Extending a previous study [1], we employ here the color-gauge invariant generalized parton model (CGI-GPM), in which spin and intrinsic transverse momentum effects are taken into account, together with leading-order initial- and final-state interactions (ISIs and FSIs). We find that, even when the heavy-quark pair is produced in a color-octet state, ISIs and FSIs lead to a nonvanishing SSA, allowing, in principle, to test the process dependence of the gluon Sivers function (GSF). We show that of the two independent contributions, due to the so-called $f$- and $d$-type GSFs, appearing in the CGI-GPM, the $d$-type one turns out to be dynamically suppressed. Therefore, as already found adopting the Color-Singlet Model approach for the $J/psi$ formation [2], only the $f$-type GSF could play a role in phenomenology. A comparison with the corresponding results obtained in the generalized parton model, without the inclusion of ISIs and FSIs, is also carried out.
The COMPASS Collaboration at CERN has measured the transverse spin azimuthal asymmetry of charged hadrons produced in semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering using a 160 GeV positive muon beam and a transversely polarised NH_3 target. The Sivers asymmetry of the proton has been extracted in the Bjorken x range 0.003<x<0.7. The new measurements have small statistical and systematic uncertainties of a few percent and confirm with considerably better accuracy the previous COMPASS measurement. The Sivers asymmetry is found to be compatible with zero for negative hadrons and positive for positive hadrons, a clear indication of a spin-orbit coupling of quarks in a transversely polarised proton. As compared to measurements at lower energy, a smaller Sivers asymmetry for positive hadrons is found in the region x > 0.03. The asymmetry is different from zero and positive also in the low x region, where sea-quarks dominate. The kinematic dependence of the asymmetry has also been investigated and results are given for various intervals of hadron and virtual photon fractional energy. In contrast to the case of the Collins asymmetry, the results on the Sivers asymmetry suggest a strong dependence on the four-momentum transfer to the nucleon, in agreement with the most recent calculations.