Extra Spin Asymmetries From the Breakdown of TMD-Factorization in Hadron-Hadron Collisions

TL;DR

This paper shows that TMD-factorization breaking in hadron-hadron collisions can lead to leading-power spin asymmetries, revealing unexpected large-distance parton correlations and challenging existing factorization assumptions.

Contribution

It demonstrates that TMD-factorization can break down at leading power in certain processes, producing observable asymmetries not predicted by traditional frameworks.

Findings

TMD-factorization fails due to non-Abelian gauge theory constraints.

Breaking effects produce leading-power spin asymmetries.

Potential explanation for unresolved QCD phenomenological puzzles.

Abstract

We demonstrate that partonic correlations that would traditionally be identified as subleading on the basis of a generalized TMD-factorization conjecture can become leading-power because of TMD-factorization breaking that arises in hadron-hadron collisions with large transverse momentum back-to-back hadrons produced in the final state. General forms of TMD-factorization fail for such processes because of a previously noted incompatibility between the requirements for TMD-factorization and the Ward identities of non-Abelian gauge theories. We first review the basic steps for factorizing the gluon distribution and then show that a conflict between TMD-factorization and the non-Abelian Ward identity arises already at the level of a single extra soft or collinear gluon when the partonic subprocess involves a TMD gluon distribution. Next we show that the resulting TMD-factorization violating effects produce leading-power final state spin asymmetries that would be classified as subleading in a generalized TMD-factorization framework. We argue that similar extra TMD-factorization breaking effects may be necessary to explain a range of open phenomenological QCD puzzles. The potential to observe extra transverse spin or azimuthal asymmetries in future experiments is highlighted as their discovery may indicate an influence from novel and unexpected large distance parton correlations.