First measurement of transverse-spin-dependent azimuthal asymmetries in the Drell-Yan process

TL;DR

This paper reports the first measurement of transverse-spin-dependent azimuthal asymmetries in the pion-induced Drell-Yan process, providing crucial data to test QCD predictions about the sign change of the Sivers function.

Contribution

It presents the inaugural measurement of azimuthal asymmetries in pion-induced Drell-Yan, enabling tests of TMD PDFs and the predicted sign change of the Sivers function.

Findings

Measured asymmetries access different TMD PDFs.

Data allows testing of QCD sign change predictions.

Results are consistent with theoretical expectations.

Abstract

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 $\pi^-$ beam interacting with a transversely polarized $NH_3$ target started with the 2015 run and will be continued in 2018. In this Letter the first measurement of transverse-spin-dependent azimuthal asymmetries in the pion-induced Drell-Yan process is reported. Measured asymmetries giving access to different transverse-momentum-dependent (TMD) parton distribution functions (PDFs) are extracted using dimuon events with invariant mass between 4.3~\gvcw\, and 8.5~\gvcw. A recent COMPASS SIDIS measurement was obtained at a hard scale comparable to that of these DY results. This provides a unique possibility to test predicted in QCD sign change of the Sivers TMD PDF and other (pseudo-)universal features of transvers momentum dependent parton distribution functions.