Polarized antiquark flavor asymmetry in Drell-Yan pair production

TL;DR

This paper explores how the flavor asymmetry of polarized antiquark distributions in nucleons significantly impacts spin asymmetries in Drell-Yan lepton pair production at high energies, providing insights into nucleon structure.

Contribution

It demonstrates the substantial effect of large polarized antiquark flavor asymmetry on spin asymmetries in Drell-Yan processes, based on model predictions in the large-N_c limit.

Findings

Large polarized antiquark flavor asymmetry affects double spin asymmetries.

Significant impact on single spin asymmetries in W-boson production.

Model predictions suggest measurable effects at HERA and RHIC energies.

Abstract

We investigate the role of the flavor asymmetry of the nucleon's polarized antiquark distributions in Drell-Yan lepton pair production in polarized nucleon-nucleon collisions at HERA (fixed-target) and RHIC energies. It is shown that the large polarized antiquark flavor asymmetry predicted by model calculations in the large-N_c limit (chiral quark-soliton model) has a dramatic effect on the double spin asymmetries in high mass lepton pair production, as well as on the single spin asymmetries in lepton pair production through $W^\pm$-bosons at $M^2 = M_W^2$.