Transversely polarized Drell-Yan measurements at COMPASS
Bakur Parsamyan
备注：
XXVII International Workshop on Deep-Inelastic Scattering and Related Subjects - DIS2019 - 8-12 April, 2019 Torino, Italy. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1801.01487
The exploration of the transverse spin structure of the nucleon by measuring spin (in)dependent azimuthal asymmetries in semi-inclusive DIS (SIDIS) and in Drell-Yan processes is one of the main objectives of the COMPASS experiment at CERN (SPS, M2 beamline). During the first phase of the experiment (2002-2011) a series of SIDIS measurements were performed, using a longitudinally polarized muon beam impinging on transversely polarized $^6$LiD or NH$_3$ targets. As a part of the COMPASS-II programme, in 2015 and 2018 the experiment performed Drell-Yan measurements with a $π^-$ beam interacting with a transversely polarized NH$_3$. The measurement of the Sivers and other azimuthal asymmetries at the same hard scale in polarized SIDIS and Drell-Yan provides a unique possibility to test predicted in QCD (pseudo-)universal features of transverse momentum dependent parton distribution functions.
Successful realization of polarized Drell-Yan physics program is one of the main goals of the second stage of the COMPASS experiment. Drell-Yan measurements with high energy (190 GeV/c) pion beam and transversely polarized NH3 target have been initiated by a pilot-run in the October 2014 and will be followed by 140 days of data taking in 2015. In the past twelve years COMPASS experiment performed series of SIDIS measurements with high energy muon beam and transversely polarized deuteron and proton targets. Results obtained for Sivers effect and other target transverse spin dependent and unpola…
In the polarised Drell-Yan experiment at the COMPASS facility at CERN the beam of negatively-charged pions with 190 GeV/c momentum and intensity about $10^8$ pions/s interacted with transversely polarised NH$_3$ target. Muon pairs produced in Drell-Yan process (DY) were detected. Recently, the first ever Transverse Spin Asymmetries (TSAs) measurement in DY has been presented by COMPASS. A complementary analysis of the TSAs weighted by powers of the dimuon transverse momentum $q_T$ are presented. In the Transverse Momentum Dependent (TMD) PDF formalism, the $q_T$-weighted TSAs can be written in…
The COMPASS experiment at CERN is one of the leading experiments studying the nucleon spin structure. Until 2012 the Parton Distribution Functions and the Transverse Momentum Dependent Parton Distribution Functions (TMDs) were extensively studied at COMPASS using Semi-Inclusive Deep Inelastic Scattering measurements. In 2015, the Drell-Yan measurements with a negative pion beam interacting with a transversely polarized ammonia target have started and will be continued through 2018. The goal is to access the TMDs of both pions and protons without any prior knowledge about fragmentation function…
Since 2005, measurements of Collins and Sivers asymmetries from the HERMES and COMPASS experiments have allowed to assess that the transversity and the Sivers PDFs are different from zero and measurable in semi-inclusive DIS on transversely polarised targets. Most of the data were collected on proton targets, only small event samples were collected in the early phase of the COMPASS experiment on a deuteron ($^6$LiD) target and more recently at JLab, on $^3$He, so that the $d$-quark and the sea-quarks PDFs are much more poorly known than the $u$-quark PDFs. This constitutes an important limitat…
We calculate the two leading-twist transverse momentum dependent distribution functions of the pion meson, the unpolarized distribution $f_{1π}(x,\bm{k}^2_T)$ and the Boer-Mulders function $h_{1π}^\perp (x,\bm{k}^2_T)$, using the pion wave functions derived from a light-cone approach. The evolution effect of the first $\bm k_T$-moment of the pion Boer-Mulders function is studied by employing an approximate evolution kernel. Using the model resulting distributions, we predict the transverse momentum weighted $\cos2ϕ$ azimuthal asymmetry in the unpolarized $π^- p$ Drell-Yan process which can be …
COMPASS is a high-energy physics experiment operating on the M2 beam line at the SPS at CERN. Using high energy muon and hadron beams the experiment covers broad range of physics aspects in the field of the hadron structure and spectroscopy. One of the important objectives of the COMPASS experiment is the exploration of transverse spin structure of the nucleon via study of spin (in)dependent azimuthal asymmetries with semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering (SIDIS) processes and starting from 2014 also with Drell-Yan (DY) reactions. Experimental results obtained by COMPASS for azimuthal effec…
COMPASS is a fixed target experiment at CERN. Part of its physics programme is dedicated to study the transverse spin and the transverse momentum structure of the nucleon using SIDIS. For these measurements, data have been collected using transversely polarised proton and deuteron targets. A selection of recent measurements of azimuthal asymmetries using data collected with transversely polarised protons is presented.
We investigate the Sivers asymmetry in the pion-induced single polarized Drell-Yan process in the theoretical framework of the transverse momentum dependent factorization up to next-to-leading logarithmic order of QCD. Within the TMD evolution formalism of parton distribution functions, the recently extracted nonperturbative Sudakov form factor for the pion distribution functions as well as the one for the Sivers function of the proton are applied to numerically estimate the Sivers asymmetry in the $π^- p$ Drell-Yan at the kinematics of the COMPASS at CERN. In the low $b$ region, the Sivers fu…
We investigate the theoretical framework of the $\cos 2ϕ$ azimuthal asymmetry contributed by the coupling of two Boer-Mulders functions in the dilepton production unpolarized $πp$ Drell-Yan process by applying the transverse momentum dependent factorization at leading order. We adopt the model calculation results of the unpolarized distribution function $f_1$ and Boer-Mulders function $h_1^\perp$ of pion meson from the light-cone wave functions. We take into account the transverse momentum evolution effects for both the distribution functions of pion and proton by adopting the existed extracti…
Exploration of transverse spin structure of the nucleon via study of the spin (in)dependent azimuthal asymmetries in semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering (SIDIS) and Drell-Yan (DY) reactions is one of the main aspects of the broad physics program of the COMPASS experiment (CERN, Switzerland). In past decade COMPASS has collected a considerable amount of polarized deuteron and proton SIDIS data, while recent 2014 and 2015 runs were dedicated to the Drell-Yan measurements. Results on SIDIS azimuthal effects provided so far by COMPASS play an important role in general understanding of the thr…
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 …
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…
COMPASS is a running fixed-target experiment at the CERN SPS with a rich physics program focused on nucleon spin structure and on hadron spectroscopy. One of the main goals of the spin program is the measurement of the transverse spin effects in semi-inclusive DIS off transversely polarised nucleons. In the years 2002, 2003 and 2004 data have been taken using a 160 $GeV/c$ naturally polarised $μ^{+}$ beam and a deuterium target ($^{6}LiD$) transversely polarised respect to the beam direction. In 2007 the run year has been devoted to collect data with a proton ($NH_{3}$) target. The preliminary…
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…
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…
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 …
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…
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…
The measurement of transverse spin effects in semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering is an important part of the COMPASS physics program. In the years 2002-2004 data were taken by scattering a 160 GeV muon beam on a transversely polarized deuteron target. In 2007, additional data were collected on a transversely polarized proton target. New results for the Collins and Sivers asymmetries from the analysis of the proton data are presented.
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…
COMPASS is a fixed target experiment at CERN investigating the spin structure of the nucleon and performing hadron spectroscopy. The transverse spin structure of the nucleon is studied in semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering of 160 GeV/c muons off a transversely polarized proton or deuteron target. In 2002-2005, a transversely polarized 6LiD, and in 2007 a transversely polarized NH3 target were used. To get access to the transversity distribution, different single-spin asymmetries have been measured: the Collins asymmetry, the hadron-pair asymmetry and the transverse lambda polarization. I…
In the polarised Drell-Yan experiment at the COMPASS facility in CERN pion beam with momentum of 190 GeV/c and intensity about $10^8$ pions/s interacted with transversely polarised NH$_3$ target. Muon pairs produced in Drel-Yan process were detected. The measurement was done in 2015 as the 1st ever polarised Drell-Yan fixed target experiment. The hydrogen nuclei in the solid-state NH$_3$ were polarised by dynamic nuclear polarisation in 2.5 T field of large-acceptance superconducting magnet. Large helium dilution cryostat was used to cool the target down below 100 mK. Polarisation of hydrogen …
The investigation of transverse spin and transverse momentum effects in deep inelastic scattering is one of the key physics programs of the COMPASS collaboration. In the years 2002-2004 COMPASS took data scattering 160 GeV muons on a transversely polarized 6LiD target. In 2007, a transversely polarized NH3 target was used. Three different channels to access the transversity distribution function have been analyzed: The azimuthal distribution of single hadrons, involving the Collins fragmentation function, the azimuthal dependence of the plane containing hadron pairs, involving the two-hadron i…
The study of transverse spin and transverse momentum effects is an important part of the scientific program of COMPASS, a fixed target experiment at the CERN SPS taking data since 2002. The studies are carried on by measuring the hadrons produced in deep inelastic scattering (DIS) of 160 GeV/c muons off different targets. Among the possible asymmetries in the hadron azimuthal distributions, particularly interesting are the Collins and Sivers asymmetries which the COMPASS Collaboration has measured using transversely polarised deuteron and proton targets. The new results for charged pions and k…
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…
The investigation of transverse spin and transverse momentum effects in deep inelastic scattering is one of the key physics programs of the COMPASS collaboration. In the years 2002-2004 COMPASS took data scattering 160 GeV muons on a transversely polarized 6LiD target. In 2007, a transversely polarized NH3 target was used. Three different channels to access the transversity distribution function have been analyzed: The azimuthal distribution of single hadrons, involving the Collins fragmentation function, the azimuthal dependence of the plane containing hadron pairs, involving the two-hadron i…
This article presents the review of the current understanding on the pion-nucleon Drell-Yan process from the point of view of the TMD factorization. Using the evolution formalism for the unpolarized and polarized TMD distributions developed recently, we provide the theoretical expression of the relevant physical observables, namely, the unpolarized cross section, the Sivers asymmetry, and the $\cos2ϕ$ asymmetry contributed by the double Boer-Mulders effects. The corresponding phenomenology, particularly at the kinematical configuration of the COMPASS $πN$ Drell-Yan facility, is displayed numer…
We investigate the single transverse-spin asymmetry with a $\sin (2ϕ-ϕ_S)$ modulation in the pion-induced Drell-Yan process within the theoretical framework of the transverse momentum dependent factorization. The asymmetry is contributed by the convolution of the Boer-Mulders function and the transversity. We adopt the model results for the distributions of the pion meson from the light-cone wavefunction approach and the available parametrization for the distributions of the proton to numerically estimate the $\sin (2ϕ-ϕ_S)$ asymmetry in $π^- p$ Drell-Yan at the kinematics of the COMPASS at CE…
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…
New high precision measurements of the Collins and Sivers asymmetries of charged hadrons produced in deep-inelastic scattering of muons on a transversely polarised 6LiD target are presented. The data were taken in 2003 and 2004 with the COMPASS spectrometer using the muon beam of the CERN SPS at 160 GeV/c. Both the Collins and Sivers asymmetries turn out to be compatible with zero, within the present statistical errors, which are more than a factor of 2 smaller than those of the published COMPASS results from the 2002 data. The final results from the 2002, 2003 and 2004 runs are compared with …
Single spin asymmetries in semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering off transversely polarized nucleon targets have been under intense experimental investigation over the past few years. They provide new insights into QCD and the nucleon structure. For instance, they allow the determination of the third yet-unknown leading-twist quark distribution function $Δ_{T}q(x)$, the transversity distribution. Additionally, they give insight into the parton transverse momentum distribution and angular momentum. The measurement of transverse spin effects in semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering is an i…
The study of transverse spin effects is part of the scientific program of COMPASS, a fixed target experiment at the CERN SPS. COMPASS investigates the transversity PDFs in semi-inclusive DIS, using a longitudinally polarized muon beam of 160 GeV/c impinging on a transversely polarized target. From 2002 to 2004, data have been collected using a $^6$LiD target transversely polarized. Transversity has been measured using different quark polarimeters: the azimuthal distribution of single hadrons, the azimuthal dependence of the plane containing hadron pairs, and the measurement of the transverse p…
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 semi-inclusive DIS of polarized leptons on a transversely polarized target eight azimuthal modulations appear in the cross-section. Within QCD parton model four azimuthal asymmetries can be interpreted at leading order, two of them being the already measured Collins and Sivers asymmetries. The other two leading twist asymmetries, related to different transverse momentum dependent quark distribution functions, and also additional four asymmetries which can be interpreted as twist-three contributions have been measured for the first time at COMPASS, using a 160 GeV/c longitudinally polarized …
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 …
New results on single spin asymmetries of charged hadrons produced in deep-inelastic scattering of muons on a transversely polarised LiD target are presented. The data were taken in the years 2002, 2003 and 2004 with the COMPASS spectrometer using the muon beam of the CERN SPS at 160 GeV/c. Preliminary results are given for the Sivers asymmetry and for all the three ``quark polarimeters'' presently used in COMPASS to measure the transversity distributions. The Collins and the Sivers asymmetries for charged hadrons turn out to be compatible with zero, within the small (~1%) statistical errors, …
We study the transverse momentum spectrum of dilepton produced in the unpolarized $π^- N$ Drell-Yan process, using transverse momentum dependent factorization up to next-to-logarithmic order of QCD. We extract the nonperturbative Sudakov form factor for the pion in the evolution formalism of the unpolarized TMD distribution function, by fitting the experimental data collected by the E615 Collaboration at Fermilab. With the extracted Sudakov factor, we calculate the normalized differential cross section with respect to transverse momentum of the dimuon and compare it with the recent measurement…
Measuring single spin asymmetries in semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering (SIDIS) on a transversely polarized target gives a handle to investigate the transversity distribution and transverse momentum dependent distribution functions. In the years 2002, 2003 and 2004 COMPASS took data with a transversely polarized deuteron target and in the year 2007 with a proton target. Three channels for accessing transversity have been analysed. Azimuthal asymmetries in the production of hadron pairs, involving the polarized two hadron interference fragmentation function, azimuthal asymmetries in the p…
Transverse spin and transverse momentum distribution functions of the constituents of the nucleon are a crucial input for a complete description of the nucleon. COMPASS measured such for longitudinally and transversely polarized deuterons and protons. In the following we will focus on recent results from the 2007 transverse proton data and on the results for unpolarized deuterons.
The study of $Λ$ polarization in Semi-Inclusive Deep Inelastic Scattering (SIDIS) with a transversely polarized target has often been suggested as a privileged way to access transversity, as the initial quark polarization can be transmitted to the hyperon and then observed via its weak decay. COMPASS measured the $Λ$ transversity-induced polarization as a function of Bjorken $x$, of the fraction $z$ of the longitudinal momentum of the fragmenting quark carried by the $Λ$ and of the $Λ$ transverse momentum $P_T$. The results are compatible with zero in all regions of phase space. Under the hypo…
By measuring transverse single spin asymmetries one has access to the transversity distribution function $Δ_T q(x)$ and the transverse momentum dependent Sivers function $q_0^T(x,\vec{k}_T)$. New measurements from identified hadrons and hadron pairs, produced in deep inelastic scattering of a transversely polarized $^6LiD$ target are presented. The data were taken in 2003 and 2004 by the COMPASS collaboration using the muon beam of the CERN SPS at 160 GeV/c, resulting in small asymmetries.
The SIDIS transverse spin asymmetries weighted with powers of $P_T$, the hadron transverse momentum in the $γN$ reference system,have been introduced already twenty years ago and are considered quite interesting. While the amplitudes of the modulations in the azimuthal distribution of the hadrons are the ratios of convolutions over transverse momenta of the transverse--momentum dependent parton distributions and of the corresponding fragmentation functions, and can be evaluated analytically only making assumptions on the transverse--momentum dependence of these functions, the weighted asymmetr…
In the years 2002-2004 COMPASS has collected data with the LiD target polarization oriented transversely with respect to the muon beam direction for about 20% of the running time, to measure transverse spin effects in semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering, one of the main objectives of the COMPASS spin program. In 2007, COMPASS has used for the first time a proton NH_3 target with the data taking time equally shared between longitudinal and transverse polarization of the target. After reviewing the results obtained with the deuteron, the new results for the Collins and Sivers asymmetries of…
New results for the transverse target spin azimuthal asymmetry A_{UT}^{sin(ϕ-ϕ_S)} for hard exclusive ρ^0-meson production on a transversely polarised ^6LiD and NH_3 target will be presented. The measurement was performed with the COMPASS detector using the 160 GeV/c muon beam of the SPS at CERN. The asymmetry is sensitive to the nucleon helicity-flip generalised parton distribution E, which is related to the orbital angular momentum of quarks in the nucleon.
We study the single spin asymmetries for the $πp^\uparrow\rightarrowμ^+μ^-X$ process. We consider the asymmetries contributed by the coupling of the Boer-Mulders function with the transversity distribution and the pretzelosity distribution, characterized by the $\sin(ϕ+ϕ_S)$ and $\sin(3ϕ-ϕ_S)$ azimuthal angular dependence, respectively. We estimate the magnitude of these asymmetries at COMPASS by using proper weighting functions. We find that the $\sin(ϕ+ϕ_S)$ asymmetry is of the size of a few percent and can be measured through the experiment. The $\sin(3ϕ-ϕ_S)$ asymmetry is smaller than the …
The COMPASS experiment has obtained first physics results in the field of polarized distribution functions for quarks and gluons using muon scattering off polarized deuterons. The analysis using open charm production and pairs of high $p_T$ hadrons is presented. We also have used a transversely polarized target to address transverse information for quarks inside the nucleon. In addition, a pilot run with incoming pions taken late 2004 will give first information on the pion polarizabilities and hadron resonances. The physics prospects from this run as well as from future data taking in this fi…
In the list of the main items studied by the CERN COMPASS experiment there are the transverse spin and momentum effects visible in the azimuthal distributions of hadrons produced in the deep inelastic scattering. In the years 2002-2004 COMPASS has collected data with a 6LiD target with the polarization oriented transversely with respect to the muon beam direction for about 20% of the running time; in 2007, COMPASS has used for the first time a proton NH_3 target with the data taking time equally shared between longitudinal and transverse polarization of the target. After reviewing the results …
COMPASS is a fixed target experiment presently running at CERN. In 2002, 2003, and 2004 the experiment used a 160 GeV polarized muon beam coming from SPS and scattered off a $^6$LiD target. The nucleons in the target can be polarized either longitudinally or transversely with respect to the muon beam and 20% of the running time has been devoted to transverse polarization. From the transverse polarization data collected in 2002, which correspond to a total integrated luminosity of about 200 pb$^{-1}$, the Collins and the Sivers asymmetries have been determined separately and the preliminary res…
The COMPASS experiment is a fixed target experiment at the CERN SPS using muon and hadron beams for the investigation of the spin structure of the nucleon and hadron spectroscopy. The main objective of the muon physics program is the study of the spin of the nucleon in terms of its constituents, quarks and gluons. COMPASS has accumulated data during 6 years scattering polarized muons off a longitudinally or a transversely polarized deuteron (6LiD) or proton (NH3) target. Results for the gluon polarization are obtained from longitudinal double spin cross section asymmetries using two different …
We have studied the prospects of using the Drell-Yan dilepton process in pion-nucleus collisions as a novel input in the global analysis of nuclear parton distribution functions (nPDFs). In a NLO QCD framework, we find the measured nuclear cross-section ratios from the NA3, NA10 and E615 experiments to be largely insensitive to the pion parton distributions and also compatible with the EPS09 and nCTEQ15 nPDFs. These data sets can thus be, and in EPPS16 have been, included in global nPDF analyses without introducing significant new theoretical uncertainties or tension with the other data. In pa…
New results on single spin asymmetries of identified charged pion and kaon pairs produced in deep-inelastic scattering of muons on a transversely polarized 6LiD target are presented. The data were taken in the years 2003 and 2004 with the COMPASS spectrometer at CERN with a 160 GeV muon beam from the CERN SPS accelerator. The asymmetries can be interpreted in the context of transversity as a convolution of the chiral-odd interference fragmentation function $H_1^\sphericalangle$ with the transverse spin distribution of quarks $Δ_Tq(x)$. The measured azimuthal target spin asymmetries on the deut…
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…
COMPASS at CERN is preparing for a new series of measurements on the nucleon structure comprising deep virtual Compton scattering and hard exclusive meson production using muon beams, as well as Drell-Yan reactions using a polarised proton target and a negative pion beam. The former will mainly constrain the generalised parton distribution H and determine the transverse size of the nucleon, while the latter measurements will provide information on transverse-momentum dependent parton distribution functions. The projected results of the programme and the necessary hardware upgrades are discusse…
We study the azimuthal asymmetries in proton-proton Drell-Yan processes with one incident proton being transversely or longitudinally polarized. We consider particularly the asymmetries contributed by the leading-twist chiral-odd quark distributions. We analyze the asymmetries with $\sin(2ϕ+ϕ_S)$ and $\sin(2ϕ-ϕ_S)$ modulations in transverse single polarized $p^\uparrow p$ Drell-Yan and $\sin2ϕ$ asymmetries in longitudinal single polarized $p^\rightarrow p$ Drell-Yan at RHIC, J-PARC, E906 (Fermi Lab) and NICA (JINR). We show that the measurements of the asymmetries in those facilities can provi…
Proton transverse-spin azimuthal asymmetries are extracted from the COMPASS 2010 semi-inclusive hadron measurements in deep inelastic muon-nucleon scattering in those four regions of the photon virtuality $Q^2$, which correspond to the four regions of the di-muon mass $\sqrt{Q^2}$ used in the ongoing analysis of the COMPASS Drell-Yan measurements. This allows for a future direct comparison of the nucleon transverse-momentum-dependent parton distribution functions extracted from these two alternative measurements. Various two-dimensional kinematic dependences are presented for the azimuthal asy…
Generalized parton distributions (GPDs) provide a new and powerful framework for a complete description of the nucleon structure. They can provide a three-dimensional picture of how the quarks and gluons form a nucleon. GPDs can be probed experimentally in hard exclusive meson production or deeply virtual Compton scattering (DVCS). The COMPASS experiment at CERN is a unique place to study these reactions. At COMPASS, a high energy polarized positive or negative muon beam is scattered off a polarized or unpolarized fixed target. First results for exclusive rho^0 meson production are shown. The …
We show that the polarized proton-antiproton Drell-Yan process is ideal to probe the pretzelosity distribution ($h_{1T}^\perp$), which is one of the new transverse-momentum-dependent parton distributions of the nucleon. We present predictions of the $\cos(2ϕ+ ϕ_a - ϕ_b)$ asymmetry in the transversely polarized proton-antiproton Drell-Yan process at PAX kinematics and find that the results are significantly larger compared with those of the $\sin(3ϕ_h - ϕ_S)$ asymmetry in the semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering process at HERMES, COMPASS, and JLab kinematics. We conclude that the $\cos(2ϕ+…
The effects of parton energy loss in nuclear matter on the Drell-Yan process in pA and $π$A collisions at fixed-target energies are investigated. Calculations are based on the Baier-Dokshitzer-Mueller-Peigné-Schiff (BDMPS) framework embedded in a next-to-leading order calculation, using the transport coefficient extracted from $J/ψ$ measurements. Model calculations prove in good agreement with preliminary measurements by the E906 experiment, despite a slightly different magnitude, supporting a consistent picture between Drell-Yan and $J/ψ$ data. Predictions for the COMPASS future measurements …
