Single transverse-spin asymmetry in Drell-Yan production at large and moderate transverse momentum

Abstract

We study the single-transverse-spin asymmetry for the Drell-Yan process. We consider production of the lepton pair at large transverse momentum, q{sub perpendicular}{approx}Q, where Q is the pair's mass. The spin asymmetry is then of higher twist and may be generated by twist-three quark-gluon correlation functions. Expanding the result for q{sub perpendicular}<<Q, we make contact with the transverse-momentum-dependent QCD factorization involving the so-called Sivers functions. We find that the two mechanisms, quark-gluon correlations on one hand and the Sivers effect on the other, contain the same physics in this region. This ties the two together and imposes an important constraint on phenomenological studies of single-transverse-spin asymmetries.