The STAR W Program : New Results and Future Measurements

TL;DR

This paper reports on measurements of W boson production in polarized proton collisions at RHIC, providing insights into proton spin structure and outlining future experimental prospects.

Contribution

It presents new results on W boson production and asymmetries at RHIC, and discusses future measurement sensitivities.

Findings

Preliminary cross section measurements for W bosons.

First results on parity-violating asymmetry $A_L$.

Discussion of future experimental sensitivities.

Abstract

The production of $W^\pm$ bosons in longitudinally polarized p+p collisions at RHIC provides a new means of studying the spin-flavour asymmetries of the proton sea quark spin distributions. Details of the W$^\pm$ event selection through the $e^\pm$ decay channel at mid-rapidity are presented, along with preliminary results for the production cross section and parity-violating single-spin asymmetry, $A_L$, from the STAR Collaboration's 2009 data set at $\sqrt{s} = 500$ GeV. Lastly, the expected sensitivities for future running are discussed.