Single Transverse-Spin Asymmetry in Large $P_T$ Open Charm Production at an Electron-Ion Collider

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the single transverse-spin asymmetry in large transverse-momentum D-meson production during semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering, highlighting a twist-3 gluonic correlation mechanism and providing formulas for future collider predictions.

Contribution

It introduces a complete leading-order QCD formula for SSA in D-meson production based on three-gluon correlations, with detailed angular dependence analysis.

Findings

Derived the SSA formula in terms of four gluonic correlation functions.

Identified five independent azimuthal structures in the SSA.

Provided numerical estimates relevant to future Electron-Ion Collider experiments.

Abstract

We discuss the single transverse-spin asymmetry (SSA) to be observed in the $D$-meson production with large transverse-momentum in semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering, $e p^\uparrow \rightarrow e D X$. This contribution is embodied as a twist-3 mechanism in the collinear factorization, which is induced by purely gluonic correlation inside the transversely-polarized nucleon, in particular, by the three-gluon correlation effects. The complete formula for the corresponding SSA in the leading-order QCD is expressed in terms of the four independent gluonic correlation functions and reveals the five independent structures with respect to the dependence on the azimuthal angle for the produced $D$-meson. We present the numerical calculations of the SSA formula at the kinematics relevant to a future Electron Ion Collider.