Transverse Double-Spin Asymmetries for Dimuon Production in pp Collisions

TL;DR

This paper calculates the transverse double-spin asymmetry for dimuon production in proton-proton collisions at next-to-leading order, providing predictions for RHIC and HERA-N, and discusses the feasibility of measuring transversity.

Contribution

It offers the first next-to-leading order predictions for transverse double-spin asymmetries in dimuon production, assuming saturation of Soffer's inequality at a low scale.

Findings

Transversity may be difficult to measure at RHIC.

Predictions depend on assumptions about Soffer's inequality.

Asymmetries vary with dimuon rapidity and mass.

Abstract

We calculate the transverse double-spin asymmetry for the production of dimuons in pp collisions as function of the dimuon rapidity and mass to next-to-leading accuracy in the strong coupling. Predictions for BNL-RHIC and HERA-N are made by assuming a saturation of Soffer's inequality at a low hadronic input scale. It seems unlikely that transversity can be measured in dimuon production at RHIC.