The First Asymmetry Measurements in High-Energy Polarized Proton-Nucleus Collision at PHENIX-RHIC

Abstract

The single spin asymmetries in very forward neutron production had been first observed about a decade ago at RHIC in transversely polarized proton + proton collision at √s = 200 GeV. Although neutron production near zero degrees is well described by the one-pion exchange (OPE) framework, the OPE appeared to be not satisfactory to describe the observed analyzing power A N . The absorptive correction to the OPE generates the asymmetry as a consequence of a phase shift between the spin flip and non-spin flip amplitudes. However the amplitude predicted by the OPE is too small to explain the large observed asymmetries. Only the model which introduces interference between major pion and small a 1 -Reggeon exchange amplitudes has been successful in reproducing the experimental data. During RHIC Run-15, RHIC delivered polarized proton collisions with Au and Al for the first time, enabling the exploration of the mechanism of transverse single-spin asymmetries with nuclear collisions. A very striking A-dependence was discovered in very forward neutron production at PHENIX in transversely polarized proton + nucleus collision at √s = 200 GeV. Such a dependence has not been predicted from the existing framework which has been succesful in proton + proton collision. In this report, experimental and theoretical efforts are discussed to disentangle the mysterious A-dependence in the very forward neutron asymmetry.