Transverse spin asymmetries in Drell–Yan processes: $p^{\uparrow} p \rightarrow \mu^+ \mu^- X$

Abstract

We consider two different spin asymmetries in Drell-Yan processes generated by the collisions of an unpolarized proton beam on transversely polarized protons: the muon helicity asymmetry and the left-right asymmetry. We calculate the asymmetries in the framework of the QCD improved parton model, taking into account the parton transverse momentum and considering the first order QCD corrections. The muon helicity asymmetry is sensitive to the quark transversity distribution and is nonvanishing even at zero order. On the contrary the left-right asymmetry vanishes at zero order but not at first order in the QCD coupling constant, as a result of gluon contribution.