Polarized proton-deuteron Drell-Yan processes and parton distributions

Abstract

We show in general that there are 108 structure functions in the proton-deuteron Drell-Yan processes. However, there exist only 22 finite ones after integrating the cross section over the virtual-photon transverse momentum Q T or after taking the limit Q T → 0. There are 11 new structure functions in comparison with the ones of the proton-proton reactions, and they are related to the tensor structure of the deuteron. Parton-model analyses indicate an important tensor structure function V T UQo , which can be measured by a quadrupole spin asymmetry. The Drell-Yan process has an advantage over lepton reactions in finding tensor polarized antiquark distributions. We hope that our studies will be realized in the next-generation RHIC-Spin project and other ones.