Measuring the Weizsaecker-Williams distribution of linearly polarized gluons at an electron-ion collider through dijet azimuthal asymmetries

TL;DR

This paper proposes a method to measure the distribution of linearly polarized gluons at an electron-ion collider by analyzing azimuthal asymmetries in dijet production, offering a way to explore gluon polarization effects.

Contribution

It introduces a feasibility study for extracting linearly polarized gluon distributions via dijet azimuthal asymmetries at future electron-ion colliders.

Findings

A 5% statistical accuracy requires 20 fb^{-1} /A luminosity.

Dijet azimuthal asymmetries can distinguish polarized gluon distributions.

Feasibility of measuring linearly polarized gluons at EIC is demonstrated.

Abstract

The Weizsaecker-Williams transverse momentum dependent (TMD) gluon distributions can be probed in the production of a hard dijet in semi-inclusive DIS. This process is sensitive not only to the conventional but also to the linearly polarized gluon distribution. The latter gives rise to an azimuthal dependence of the dijet cross section and therefore can be distinguished from the former. Feasibility study of a measurement of these TMDs through dijet production at a future electron-ion collider shows that the extraction of the distribution of linearly polarized gluons with a statistical accuracy of 5% will require estimated luminosity of 20 fb^{-1} /A.