Jet Charge: A Flavor Prism for Spin Asymmetries at the Electron-Ion Collider

Abstract

We propose the jet charge observable as a novel probe of flavor structure in the nucleon spin program at the electron ion collider (EIC) and develop the underlying framework from first principles. We show that jet charge measurements can substantially enhance the sensitivity of spin asymmetries to different partonic flavors in the nucleon. This sensitivity can be further improved by constructing the jet charge using only a subset of hadron species (pions or kaons) in the jet. As an example, we use the Sivers asymmetry in back-to-back electron-jet production at the EIC to show that the jet charge can be a unique tool in constraining the Sivers function for different partonic flavors.