QCD evolution of the gluon Sivers function in heavy flavor dijet production at the Electron-Ion Collider

TL;DR

This paper develops a formalism using Soft-Collinear Effective Theory to predict the gluon Sivers asymmetry in heavy flavor dijet production at the Electron-Ion Collider, highlighting the importance of heavy quark mass effects.

Contribution

It introduces a new TMD factorization approach incorporating heavy quark mass corrections for heavy flavor dijet production in polarized collisions.

Findings

Heavy quark mass effects significantly alter the predicted asymmetry.

The formalism provides a basis for future experimental measurements at the EIC.

Predictions differ notably when finite quark masses are included.

Abstract

Using Soft-Collinear Effective Theory, we develop the transverse-momentum-dependent factorization formalism for heavy flavor dijet production in polarized-proton-electron collisions. We consider heavy flavor mass corrections in the collinear-soft and jet functions, as well as the associated evolution equations. Using this formalism, we generate a prediction for the gluon Sivers asymmetry for charm and bottom dijet production at the future Electron-Ion Collider. Furthermore, we compare theoretical predictions with and without the inclusion of finite quark masses. We find that the heavy flavor mass effects can give sizable corrections to the predicted asymmetry.