Improving constraints on gluon spin-momentum correlations in transversely polarized protons via midrapidity open-heavy-flavor electrons in p↑+p collisions at s=200 GeV

Abstract

Polarized proton-proton collisions provide leading-order access to gluons, presenting an opportunity to constrain gluon spin-momentum correlations within transversely polarized protons and enhance our understanding of the three-dimensional structure of the proton. Midrapidity open-heavy-flavor production at s=200 GeV is dominated by gluon-gluon fusion, providing heightened sensitivity to gluon dynamics relative to other production channels. Transverse single-spin asymmetries of positrons and electrons from heavy-flavor hadron decays are measured at midrapidity using the PHENIX detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. These charge-separated measurements are sensitive to gluon correlators that can in principle be related to gluon orbital angular momentum via model calculations. Explicit constraints on gluon correlators are extracted for two separate models, one of which had not been constrained previously.Received 28 April 2022Revised 10 September 2022Accepted 6 March 2023DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.107.052012Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.Published by the American Physical SocietyPhysics Subject Headings (PhySH)Research AreasBeam polarizationHadron-hadron interactionsPolarization phenomenaRelativistic heavy-ion collisionsPhysical SystemsElectronsPositronsPropertiesSpinParticles & Fields