Intrinsic transverse momentum and transverse spin asymmetries

TL;DR

This paper explores how intrinsic transverse momentum and transverse spin asymmetries in hadron collisions can reveal information about quark distributions and potentially access the transversity distribution function.

Contribution

It introduces a chiral-odd T-odd distribution function with transverse momentum dependence as a new approach to understanding spin asymmetries and related observables.

Findings

Links unpolarized and polarized observables in proton-proton collisions

Provides a method to access the transversity distribution function

Explains the origin of large cos(2 phi) asymmetry in Drell-Yan

Abstract

We investigate leading twist transverse momentum dependent origins of transverse spin asymmetries in hadron-hadron collisions. The chiral-odd T-odd distribution function with intrinsic transverse momentum dependence, which would signal an intrinsic handedness of quarks inside a hadron, could account for single spin asymmetries and at the same time for the large cos(2 phi) asymmetry in the unpolarized Drell-Yan cross section, which still lacks understanding. We show explicitly how it would relate unpolarized and polarized observables measurable with proton-proton collisions at RHIC. It would offer a new possibility to access the transversity distribution function.