Transverse single-spin asymmetries in proton-proton collisions at the AFTER@LHC experiment
K. Kanazawa, Y. Koike, A. Metz, D. Pitonyak
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10 pages, 4 figures; more details/discussion added to the text, references added/updated, version to appear in Advances in High Energy Physics for the Special Issue "Physics at a Fixed-Target Experiment Using the LHC Beams"
We present results for transverse single-spin asymmetries in proton-proton collisions at kinematics relevant for AFTER, a proposed fixed-target experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. These include predictions for pion, jet, and direct photon production from analytical formulas already available in the literature. We also discuss specific measurements that will benefit from the higher luminosity of AFTER, which could help resolve an almost 40-year puzzle of what causes transverse single-spin asymmetries in proton-proton collisions.
This is a brief review of charge asymmetries in top-antitop quark production at the LHC. Proposed asymmetry observables in processes of associated top-pair production $t\bar t$ + jet, $t\bar t + W$, and $t\bar t + γ$ are analyzed and compared. While the focus is on standard-model predictions, we also comment on the sensitivity to possible new physics and observation prospects during the second runtime of the LHC.
Transverse single-spin asymmetries (SSA) are expected to be small in perturbative QCD because of the chiral nature of the theory. Experiment shows large transverse SSA for particle produced in special kinematics. This contribution reviews the experimental situation and provide an outlook for future measurements.
We discuss lepton charge asymmetries in $t \bar t$ and $t \bar t γ$ production at the LHC, which can be measured in the semileptonic decay channel $t \bar t \to W^+ b \, W^- \bar b \to \ell^+ νb \, q \bar q' \bar b$ (or the charge conjugate). Considering several variants of a new physics scenario with a light colour octet, it is seen that for $t \bar t$ these asymmetries may have a sensitivity competitive with the dilepton asymmetry already measured. For $t \bar t γ$ the new leptonic asymmetries, as well as the $t \bar t$ charge asymmetry, will reach their full potential with the high luminosi…
After reviewing the most important COMPASS results on transverse spin effects in SIDIS, I will present the recent work we have done on weighted Sivers asymmetries and "transversity induced" $Λ$ polarisation. Using the high statistics data collected in 2010 on a transversely polarised proton target COMPASS has evaluated the transverse momentum weighted Sivers asymmetries both in $x$- and in $z$-bins. The results are also compared with the standard unweighted asymmetries. Using the whole data sample collected over the years on transversely polarised deuteron and proton targets COMPASS has measur…
The production of vector mesons in SIDIS is a particularly interesting channel to study the polarized fragmentation and related phenomena. Preliminary COMPASS results for the first measurement of inclusive $ρ^0$ Collins and Sivers transverse-spin asymmetries are presented here for the first time. The analysis is based on the data-set collected by COMPASS in $2010$ using a $160\, \rm{GeV}/c$ $μ^+$ beam and a transversely polarized $NH_3$ target. The asymmetries are extracted as function of Bjorken-$x$, of the total transverse momentum of the oppositely charged hadron pair and of the fraction of…
In the fragmentation of a transversely polarized quark a left-right asymmetry, the Collins asymmetry, is expected for each hadron produced in the process $μN \rightarrow μ' h^{+} h^{-} X$. Similarly, an asymmetry is also expected for the hadron pair, the dihadron asymmetry. Both asymmetries have been measured to be different from zero on transversely polarised proton targets and have allowed for first extractions of the transversity distributions. From the high statistics COMPASS data we have further investigated these asymmetries getting strong indications that the two mechanisms are driven b…
In the CP-violating Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model, we study the production of a neutralino-chargino pair at the LHC. For their decays into three leptons, we analyze CP asymmetries which are sensitive to the CP phases of the neutralino and chargino sector. We present analytical formulas for the entire production and decay process, and identify the CP-violating contributions in the spin correlation terms. This allows us to define the optimal CP asymmetries. We present a detailed numerical analysis of the cross sections, branching ratios, and the CP observables. For light neutralinos, cha…
Recently, the RHICf Collaboration measured the transverse single-spin asymmetries of the very forward neutral pion in polarized $p+p$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=510$ GeV, produced at large pseudorapidity ($η\gtrsim 6$). The data show large asymmetries both in longitudinal momentum fraction $x_F$ and transverse momentum $p_T$ at $p_T<1\,\mathrm{GeV}/c$. Employing baryonic triple Regge exchanges, we describe the complete RHICf data for the first time and show that the neutral pion production at low $p_T$ can be interpreted as a diffractive one.
The measurement of a charge asymmetry in t tbar production at LHC constitutes more than an independent confirmation of the forward-backward asymmetry found at Tevatron. Indeed, both measurements together can be used to identify the source of the asymmetry. This is demonstrated for the case of new Z', W' vector bosons and colour-sextet and triplet scalars, exchanged in t, u channels respectively, and a very heavy axigluon in the s channel.
In semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering of polarized leptons on a transversely polarized target eight target transverse spin-dependent azimuthal modulations are allowed. In the QCD parton model half of these asymmetries can be interpreted within the leading order approach and the other four are twist-three contributions. The first two leading twist asymmetries extracted by HERMES and COMPASS experiments are related: one to the transversity distribution and the Collins effect, the other to the Sivers distribution function. These results triggered a lot of interest in the past few years and …
In general, eight target transverse spin-dependent azimuthal modulations are allowed in semi inclusive deep inelastic scattering of polarized leptons on a transversely polarized target. In the QCD parton model four of these asymmetries can be interpreted within the leading order approach. Two of them, namely Collins and Sivers effects were already measured by HERMES and COMPASS experiments. Other two leading twist and remaining four azimuthal asymmetries which can be interpreted as twist-three contributions have been measured for the first time in COMPASS using a 160 GeV/c longitudinally polar…
One of the important objectives of the COMPASS experiment (SPS, CERN) \cite{Abbon:2007pq} is the exploration of the transverse spin structure of the nucleon via spin dependent azimuthal asymmetries in single-hadron production in deep inelastic scattering of polarized leptons off transversely polarized targets. For this purpose a series of measurements were made in COMPASS, using 160 GeV/c longitudinally polarized muon beam and transversely polarized $^6LiD$ (in 2002, 2003 and 2004) and $NH_3$ (in 2007 and 2010) targets. In the past few years considerable theoretical interest and experimental e…
We study parity-even and parity-odd polarization observables for the process $p \, p \to l^{\pm} \, X$, where the lepton comes from the decay of a $W$-boson. By using the collinear twist-3 factorization approach, we consider the case when one proton is transversely polarized, while the other is either unpolarized or longitudinally polarized. These observables give access to two particular quark-gluon-quark correlation functions, which have a direct relation to transverse momentum dependent parton distributions. We present numerical estimates for RHIC kinematics. Measuring, for instance, the pa…
The COMPASS experiment at CERN, as part of its programme addresses the exploration of the transverse spin structure of the nucleon by measuring spin (in)dependent azimuthal asymmetries in semi-inclusive DIS and, recently, also in Drell-Yan processes. Between 2002 and 2010 COMPASS performed a series of SIDIS measurements, using a longitudinally polarized muon beam impinging on transversely polarized $^6LiD$ or $NH_3$ targets. Drell-Yan measurements with a $π^-$ beam interacting with a transversely polarized $NH_3$ target started with the 2015 run and will be continued in 2018. In this Letter th…
We study the single-spin asymmetries with the $\sinϕ_S$ and $\sin(2ϕ_h -ϕ_S)$ angular dependences for charged and neutral pions produced in semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering on the transversely polarized proton target. The theoretical interpretations of the two asymmetries are presented in terms of the convolution of the twist-3 quark transverse momentum dependent distributions and twist-2 fragmentation functions. Specifically, we investigate the role of the distributions $f_T$, $h_T$ and $h_T^\perp$ in the $\sinϕ_S$ asymmetry, as well as the role of the distributions $f_T^\perp$, $h_T$…
We discuss the three independent asymmetries, AT(2)(q2), AT(im)(q2) and AT(re)(q2), that one can build from the amplitudes A_perp(q2) and A_par(q2). These quantities are expected to be accessible from the new B-physics experiments, they are sensitive to the presence of new physics, and they are not significantly sensitive to hadronic uncertainties. Studying their low q2-dependence can be helpful in discerning among various possible new physics scenarios. All three asymmetries can be extracted from the full angular analysis of B-->K* l+l-. Our formulas apply to both the massless and the massive…
COMPASS is a high-energy physics experiment operating at the SPS at CERN. Wide physics program of the experiment comprises study of hadron structure and spectroscopy with high energy muon and hadrons beams. As for the muon-program, one of the important objectives of the COMPASS experiment is the exploration of the transverse spin structure of the nucleon via spin (in)dependent azimuthal asymmetries in single-hadron production in deep inelastic scattering of polarized leptons off transversely polarized target. For this purpose a series of measurements were made in COMPASS, using 160 GeV/c longi…
We study how the significance of top quark induced charge asymmetries at the LHC may be enhanced exploiting the $t\bar t$ total transverse momentum to enrich the fraction of quark fusion events in the sample. We combine this variable with previous variables related to the boost and the invariant mass of the $t\bar t$ pair to find an optimum cut which maximizes the significance of the asymmetry when systematic and statistic errors are taken into account. We find that including the $t\bar t$ transverse momentum in the analysis of the expected 2012 LHC data provides a considerable enhancement in …
One of the important objectives of the COMPASS experiment is the exploration of transverse spin structure of nucleon via spin (in)dependent azimuthal asymmetries in semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering (SIDIS) of polarized leptons (and soon also Drell-Yan (DY) reactions with $π^-$) off transversely polarized target. For this purpose a series of measurements were made in COMPASS, using 160 GeV/c longitudinally polarized muon beam and polarized $^6LiD$ and $NH_3$ targets and are foreseen with 190 GeV/c $π^-$ beam on polarized $NH_3$. The experimental results obtained by COMPASS for azimuthal…
In inclusive deep-inelastic lepton-hadron scattering multi-photon exchange between the leptonic and the hadronic part of the process causes single spin asymmetries. The asymmetries exist for a polarized target as well as a polarized incoming or outgoing lepton, if the polarization vector has a component transverse with respect to the reaction plane. The spin dependent parts of the single polarized cross sections are suppressed like $α_{em} m_{pol}/Q$ - where $m_{pol}$ denotes the mass of the polarized particle - compared to the leading terms of the cross section for unpolarized or double-polar…
COMPASS is a fixed-target high energy physics experiment at the SPS at CERN \cite{Abbon:2007pq}. One of the important objectives of the experiment is the exploration of the transverse spin structure of the nucleon via spin dependent azimuthal asymmetries in single-hadron production in deep inelastic scattering of polarized leptons off transversely polarized target. For this purpose a series of measurements were made in COMPASS, using 160 GeV/c longitudinally polarized muon beam and transversely polarized $^6LiD$ (in 2002, 2003 and 2004) and $NH_3$ (in 2007 and 2010) targets. Till now main atte…
We analyze single transverse-spin asymmetries for hadronic pion production at large transverse momenta using QCD factorization. In the large $x_F$ region, leading contributions to the asymmetries are naturally produced by twist-3 parton correlation functions that couple quark fields and gluon field strengths. With a simple model for these matrix elements, leading-order asymmetries calculated from QCD are consistent with data on pion production from Fermilab, and can be used to predict single-spin asymmetries at RHIC. We argue that our perturbative calculation for the asymmetries is relevant to…
Some properties of intrinsic transverse momentum dependent nucleon distribution functions are considered in the simple quark-diquark model. The transverse target polarization dependent asymmetries for SIDIS are calculated and compared with recent results of COMPASS. The model describes well the measured asymmetries. Generalization of quark-diquark model for Sivers function is discussed.
In practice the asymmetry, which is defined based on the angular distribution of the final states in scattering or decay processes, can be utilized to scrutinize underlying dynamics in and/or beyond the standard model (BSM). As one of the possible BSM physics which might be discovered early at the LHC, extra neutral gauge bosons $Z^\prime$s are theoretical well motivated. Once $Z^\prime$s are discovered at the LHC, it is crucial to discriminate different $Z^\prime$s in various BSM. In principle such task can be accomplished by measuring the angular distribution of the final states which are pr…
By exploiting the correlation between charge and spin polarisation asymmetries in t-tbar, we show that combining the two observables could identify the presence of quasi-degenerate states in a resonant signal at the LHC. As an example, we investigate experimental signatures emerging in top-antitop final states in the context of a model where the Standard Model Electro-Weak sector is allowed to propagate in large extra--dimensions of TeV^-1 size while the colour sector is localised. Assuming current experimantal constraints from the 7 and 8 TeV runs and taking into account the estimated top (an…
Muon pairs created in the Drell-Yan process of a negative pion beam of 190 GeV/c momentum impinging on a transversely polarised NH$_3$ target were detected with the COMPASS spectrometer at CERN in 2015. In addition to the extraction of the transverse spin asymmetries (TSAs) from these data, a complementary analysis of the TSAs weighted by powers of the dimuon momentum $q_T$ has been performed and is presented in this paper. In the transverse momentum dependent parton distribution functions (TMD PDFs) formalism, the $q_T$-weighted TSAs can be interpreted in terms of products of the TMD PDFs of …
Electroweak production of single top quarks is an as-yet-unverified prediction of the Standard model, potentially sensitive to new physics. Two of the single top quark productions channels have significant charge asymmetries at the LHC, while the much larger background from $t\bar{t}$ is nearly charge-symmetric. This can be used to reduce systematic uncertainties and make precision measurements of single top quark production.
Flavor-violating interactions involving new heavy particles are among proposed explanations for the $t\bar t$ forward-backward asymmetry observed at the Tevatron. Many of these models generate a $t\bar t$-plus-jet signal at the LHC. In this paper we identify several new charge asymmetric variables in $t\bar tj$ events that can contribute to the discovery of such models at the LHC. We propose a data-driven method for the background, largely eliminating the need for a Monte Carlo prediction of $t\bar t$-plus-jets, and thus reducing systematic errors. With a fast detector simulation, we estimate …
We compute, for $t \bar t$ production at the LHC and at the Tevatron, several charge asymmetries to NLO QCD, including also the electromagnetic and weak-interaction corrections. We calculate these asymmetries both inclusively and with additional kinematic cuts and compare our results, where possible, with recent experimental results and with SM predictions. The $t \bar t$ asymmetries induce also corresponding asymmetries for the charged leptons from semileptonic top-quark decay. Although these asymmetries are, in the SM, smaller than the corresponding ones for top quarks, they are expected to …
We consider the leading order result for polarized leptoproduction, putting emphasis on transverse momentum dependent effects appearing in azimuthal asymmetries. Measurements of weighted cross sections enable extraction of the distribution of transversely polarized quarks. We focus on the distribution in a longitudinally polarized hadron and estimate the expected asymmetries in leptoproduction.
We present results on bottom hadron production asymmetries at the LHC within both the Lund string fragmentation model and the intrinsic bottom model. The main aspects of the models are summarized and specific predictions for pp collisions at 14 TeV are given. Asymmetries are found to be very small at central rapidities increasing to a few percent at forward rapidities. At very large rapidities intrinsic production could dominate but this region is probably out of reach of any experiment.
We calculate the double-spin transverse asymmetries for the Drell-Yan lepton pair production in p-p and p-anti p collisions. We assume the transverse and the longitudinal polarization densities to be equal at a very small scale, as it is suggested by confinement model results. Using a global fit for the longitudinal distributions, we find transverse asymmetries of order of 10^-2 at most, in the accessible kinematic regions.
We study single-spin asymmetries in semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering with transversely polarized target. Based on the QCD factorization approach, we consider Sivers and Collins contributions to the asymmetries. We fit simple parameterizations for the Sivers and Collins functions to the recent HERMES data, and compare to results from COMPASS. Using the fitted parameterizations for the Sivers functions, we predict the single transverse spin asymmetries for various processes in $pp$ collisions at RHIC, including the Drell-Yan process and angular correlations in dijet and jet-plus-photon p…
We discuss transverse double-spin asymmetries for dimuon production at small transverse-momentum $Q_T$ in $pp$ and $p\bar{p}$ collisions. All order resummation of large logarithms relevant in small $Q_T$ region is performed at next-to-leading logarithmic (NLL) accuracy, and asymmetries at RHIC, J-PARC and GSI are calculated.
We show that in the Mclerran-Venugopalan model, an axial asymmetrical valence quark distributions in the transverse plane of a transversely polarized proton can give rise to a spin dependent odderon. Such polarized odderon is responsible for the transverse single spin asymmetries(SSAs) for jet production in the backward region of pp collisions and open charm production in semi-inclusive DIS process.
We examine the effect of a general HZZ coupling through a study of the Higgs decay to leptons via Z bosons at the LHC. We discuss various methods for placing limits on additional couplings, including measurement of the partial width, threshold scans, and asymmetries constructed from angular observables. We find that only the asymmetries provide a definitive test of additional couplings. We further estimate the significances they provide.
Transverse single spin asymmetries can be a challenging tool in our understanding of the internal structure of hadrons. Some aspects and recent results are discussed.
We discuss a possible explanation of the 25 year old mystery of the large transverse spin asymmetries found in many semi-inclusive hadron-hadron reactions. We obtain the first reliable information about the transverse polarized quark densities Delta_T q(x) and we find surprising implications for the usual, longitudinal, polarized DIS. The plan of the presentation is as follows: 1) A brief reminder about the internal structure of the nucleon. 2) The transverse asymmetries. 3) Why it is so difficult to explain the asymmetries. 4) Failure and then success using a new soft mechanism. 5) implicatio…
We will give convincing arguments to view transverse spin asymmetries in inclusive reactions, as very exciting observables, although there were considered as irrelevant for a long time. We look forward to new high energy data in the near future.
We derive the analog of the Wandzura-Wilczek relation for the light-cone distributions of polarized gluons in a transversely polarized nucleon. The short distance cross-section is entirely due to the intrinsic transverse momenta of gluon in the nucleon, in complete analogy to the quark case. Numerical estimate for the double spin transverse asymmetries at RHIC are presented.
Generalized parton distributions (GPDs) with purely transverse momentum transfer can be interpreted as Fourier transforms of the distribution of partons in impact parameter space. The helicity-flip GPD $E(x,0,-\Dps)$ is related to the distortion of parton distribution functions in impact parameter space if the target is not a helicity eigenstate, but has some transverse polarization. This transverse distortion can be used to develop an intuitive explanation for various transverse single spin asymmetries.
We provide a qualitative and quantitative unified picture of the charge asymmetry in top quark pair production at hadron colliders in the SM and summarise the most recent experimental measurements.
We present a technique to calculate the cross sections and spin asymmetries for transversely polarized $pp$ collisions at NLO in QCD and report on the use of this technique for the processes $p^{\uparrow} p^{\uparrow} \to γX$, $p^{\uparrow} p^{\uparrow} \to πX$ and $p^{\uparrow} p^{\uparrow} \to l^+ l^- X$.
We consider several single spin asymmetries in inclusive, transversely polarized proton(antiproton) - proton processes as higher twist QCD contributions, taking into account spin and intrinsic transverse momentum effects in the quark distribution functions. This approach has been previously applied to the description of the single spin asymmetries observed in transversely polarized proton - proton -> pion + X reactions and all its parameters fixed: we give here predictions for new processes, which agree with experiments for which data are available, and suggest further possible measurements.
We investigate leading twist transverse momentum dependent origins of transverse spin asymmetries in hadron-hadron collisions. The chiral-odd T-odd distribution function with intrinsic transverse momentum dependence, which would signal an intrinsic handedness of quarks inside a hadron, could account for single spin asymmetries and at the same time for the large cos(2 phi) asymmetry in the unpolarized Drell-Yan cross section, which still lacks understanding. We show explicitly how it would relate unpolarized and polarized observables measurable with proton-proton collisions at RHIC. It would of…
One of the important objectives of the COMPASS experiment (CERN, SPS north area) is the exploration of transverse spin structure of nucleon via study of spin (in)dependent azimuthal asymmetries with semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering (SIDIS) processes and recently also with Drell-Yan (DY) reactions. In the past twelve years series of measurements were made in COMPASS, using 160 GeV/c longitudinally polarized muon beam and polarized $^6LiD$ and $NH_3$ targets. Drell-Yan measurements with high energy (190 GeV/c) pion beam and transversely polarized $NH_3$ target started in 2014 with a pilo…
We study the single transverse-spin asymmetry for the inclusive direct-photon and single-jet productions in the proton-proton collision based on the twist-3 mechanism in the collinear factorization. Taking into account all the effects from the twist-3 quark-gluon correlation functions inside a transversely polarized proton, we present a prediction for the asymmetries at the typical RHIC kinematics. In both processes we find sizable asymmetries in the forward region of the polarized proton while they are almost zero in the backward region. This implies that if one finds a nonzero asymmetries in…
$J/ψ$- or $Υ$-pair production at the LHC are promising processes to study the gluon transverse momentum distributions (TMDs) which remain very poorly known. In this article, we improve on previous results by including the TMD evolution in the computation of the observables such as the pair-transverse-momentum spectrum and asymmetries arising from the linear polarization of gluons inside unpolarized protons. We show that the azimuthal asymmetries generated by the gluon polarization are reduced compared to the tree level case but are still of measurable size (in the 5%-10% range). Such asymmetri…
We present next-to-leading order predictions for double transverse-spin asymmetries in Drell--Yan dilepton production initiated by proton--antiproton scattering. The kinematic region of the proposed PAX experiment at GSI: $30\lesssim{s}\lesssim200\GeV^2$ and $2\lesssim{M}\lesssim7\GeV$ is examined. The Drell--Yan asymmetries turn out to be large, in the range 20--40%. Measuring these asymmetries would provide the cleanest determination of the quark transversity distributions.
The transverse momentum dependent helicity distributions of valence quarks are calculated in the light-cone diquark model by adopting two different approaches. We use the model results to analyze the $P_{h\perp}$-dependent double spin asymmetries for $π^+$, $π^-$ and $π^0$ productions in semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering, and find that the asymmetries agree with the CLAS data in one of the approaches. By taking the Fourier transform of the transverse momentum dependent helicity distributions, we obtain the helicity distributions of valence quarks in the transverse coordinate space, and …
We show how some parton distribution functions related to the transverse spin of nucleons can be extracted point by point from combinations of proton and deuteron observables. In particular, we present a determination of the valence and sea Sivers functions from the single-spin asymmetries measured by COMPASS.
A phenomenological description of single transverse spin asymmetries for the inclusive production of hadrons in proton-proton and lepton-proton processes is discussed within pQCD and a straightforward generalization of the factorization theorem with the inclusion of parton intrinsic transverse motion. Fits to existing data, predictions for new processes and interpretation of recent results are presented.
COMPASS is a fixed-target experiment in operation at the CERN North Area (SPS, M2 beam-line) since 2002. An important part of the broad physics programme of the experiment is dedicated to the exploration of the transverse spin-structure of the nucleon studying target transverse spin dependent azimuthal asymmetries (TSAs) arising in the Semi-Inclusive DIS (SIDIS) and Drell-Yan (DY) cross-sections. In addition to those measurements, COMPASS has recently studied also the TSAs weighted by powers of the hadron transverse momentum (in SIDIS) and virtual photon transverse momentum, $q_T$ (in DY). In …
We discuss forward-backward charge asymmetries for lepton pair production in association with a large transverse momentum jet at hadron colliders. The measurement of the lepton charge asymmetry relative to the jet direction A_{FB}^j gives a new determination of the effective weak mixing angle sin^2{θ_{eff}^{lept}(M_Z^2)} with in principle a statistical precision after cuts of \sim 10^{-3} (8 x 10^{-3}) at LHC (Tevatron), due to the large cross section of the process with initial gluons. The identification of b jets also allows for the measurement of the bottom quark Z asymmetry A_{FB}^b at had…
We examine the spin-dependence of standard model Higgs boson production at large transverse momentum via the processes $gg \rightarrow gH^0$, $qg \rightarrow qH^0$, and $q\overline{q} \rightarrow gH^0$. The partonic level spin-spin asymmetries ($\hat{a}_{LL}$) for these processes are large at SSC/LHC energies.
Transverse single-spin asymmetries (SSA) in inclusive reactions are now considered to be directly related to the transverse momentum $k_{T}$ of the fundamental partons involved in the process. Several possible leading-twist QCD mechanisms have been proposed to explain the available data, in particular the Sivers effect which was resurrected recently. We show that from the measurement of transverse SSA in inclusive production of gauge bosons, one can learn more about the Sivers functions and possibly to achieve a reliable flavor separation.
We analyze the longitudinal-transverse double-spin asymmetry in lepton-nucleon collisions where a single hadron is detected in the final state, i.e., $\vec{\ell}\,N^\uparrow \rightarrow h\,X$. This is a subleading-twist observable in collinear factorization, and we look at twist-3 effects in both the transversely polarized nucleon and the unpolarized outgoing hadron. Results are anticipated for this asymmetry from both HERMES and Jefferson Lab Hall A, and it could be measured as well at COMPASS and a future Electron-Ion Collider. We also perform a numerical study of the distribution term, whic…
Using Drell-Yan pair production as an example, we explore the relation between two well-known mechanisms for single transverse-spin asymmetries in hard processes: twist-three quark-gluon correlations when the pair's transverse momentum is large, $q_\perp \gg Λ_{\rm QCD}$, and time-reversal-odd and transverse-momentum-dependent parton distributions when $q_\perp$ is much less than the pair's mass. We find that although the two mechanisms have their own domain of validity, they describe the same physics in the kinematic region where they overlap. This unifies the two mechanisms and imposes an im…
