Dijet Angular Distributions in Direct and Resolved Photoproduction at HERA

TL;DR

This paper measures dijet angular distributions in photoproduction at HERA, distinguishing between direct and resolved processes, and finds results consistent with QCD predictions based on exchanged particle spins.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed comparison of angular distributions in direct and resolved photoproduction, confirming QCD spin-dependent predictions.

Findings

Angular distributions differ significantly between direct and resolved samples.

Results agree with QCD calculations based on quark and gluon exchange.

Supports the spin-dependent nature of the underlying subprocesses.

Abstract

Jet photoproduction, where the two highest transverse energy ($\ETJ$) jets have $\ETJ$ above 6 GeV and a jet-jet invariant mass above 23~GeV, has been studied with the ZEUS detector at the HERA $ep$ collider. Resolved and direct photoproduction samples have been separated. The cross section as a function of the angle between the jet-jet axis and the beam direction in the dijet rest frame has been measured for the two samples. The measured angular distributions differ markedly from each other. They agree with the predictions of QCD calculations, where the different angular distributions reflect the different spins of the quark and gluon exchanged in the hard subprocess.