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Measurement of Transverse Single-Spin Asymmetries for J/psi Production in Polarized p+p Collisions at sqrt(s) = 200 GeV

Abstract : We report the first measurement of transverse single-spin asymmetries in $J/\psi$ production from transversely polarized $p+p$ collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 200$ GeV with data taken by the PHENIX experiment in 2006 and 2008. The measurement was performed over the rapidity ranges $1.2 < |y| < 2.2$ and $|y| < 0.35$ for transverse momenta up to 6 GeV/$c$. $J/\psi$ production at RHIC is dominated by processes involving initial-state gluons, and transverse single-spin asymmetries of the $J/\psi$ can provide access to gluon dynamics within the nucleon. Such asymmetries may also shed light on the long-standing question in QCD of the $J/\psi$ production mechanism. Asymmetries were obtained as a function of $J/\psi$ transverse momentum and Feynman-$x$, with a value of $-0.086 \pm 0.026^{\rm stat} \pm 0.003^{\rm syst}$ in the forward region. This result suggests possible nonzero trigluon correlation functions in transversely polarized protons and, if well defined in this reaction, a nonzero gluon Sivers distribution function.
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Journal articles
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http://hal.in2p3.fr/in2p3-00521343
Contributor : Dominique Girod <>
Submitted on : Monday, September 27, 2010 - 11:47:51 AM
Last modification on : Wednesday, September 16, 2020 - 4:07:56 PM

Citation

A. Adare, S. Afanasiev, C. Aidala, N. N. Ajitanand, Y. Akiba, et al.. Measurement of Transverse Single-Spin Asymmetries for J/psi Production in Polarized p+p Collisions at sqrt(s) = 200 GeV. Physical Review D, American Physical Society, 2010, 82, pp.112008. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevD.82.112008⟩. ⟨in2p3-00521343⟩

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