Gluon Orbital Angular Momentum Research Articles

Orbital angular momentum small-x evolution: exact results in the large-Nc limit

We construct an exact solution to the revised small-x orbital angular momentum (OAM) evolution equations derived in [1], based on an earlier work [2]. These equations are derived in the double logarithmic approximation (summing powers of αs ln2(1/x) with αs the strong coupling constant and x the Bjorken x variable) and the large-Nc limit, with Nc the number of quark colors. From our solution, we extract the small-x, large-Nc expressions of the quark and gluon OAM distributions. Additionally, we determine the large-Nc small-x asymptotics of the OAM distributions to beLq+q¯xQ2∼LGxQ2∼ΔΣxQ2∼ΔGxQ2∼1xαh,\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ {L}_{q+\\overline{q}}\\left(x,{Q}^2\\right)\\sim {L}_G\\left(x,{Q}^2\\right)\\sim \\Delta \\Sigma \\left(x,{Q}^2\\right)\\sim \\Delta G\\left(x,{Q}^2\\right)\\sim {\\left(\\frac{1}{x}\\right)}^{\\alpha_h}, $$\\end{document}with the intercept αh the same as obtained in the small-x helicity evolution [3], which can be approximated as αh ≈ 3.66074αsNc2π\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ 3.66074\\sqrt{\\frac{\\alpha_s{N}_c}{2\\pi }} $$\\end{document}. This result is in complete agreement with [4]. Additionally, we calculate the ratio of the quark and gluon OAM distributions to the flavor-singlet quark and gluon helicity parton distribution functions respectively in the small-x region.

Orbital angular momentum at small x revisited

We revisit the problem of the small Bjorken-x asymptotics of the quark and gluon orbital angular momentum (OAM) distributions in the proton utilizing the revised small-x helicity evolution derived recently in [1]. We relate the quark and gluon OAM distributions at small x to the polarized dipole amplitudes and their (first) impact-parameter moments. To obtain the OAM distributions, we derive novel small-x evolution equations for the impact-parameter moments of the polarized dipole amplitudes in the double-logarithmic approximation (summing powers of αs ln2(1/x) with αs the strong coupling constant). We solve these evolution equations numerically and extract the leading large-Nc, small-x asymptotics of the quark and gluon OAM distributions, which we determine to beLq+q¯xQ2~LGxQ2~∆ΣxQ2~∆GxQ2~123.66αsNc2π,\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ {L}_{q+\\overline{q}}\\left(x,{Q}^2\\right)\\sim {L}_G\\left(x,{Q}^2\\right)\\sim \\Delta \\Sigma \\left(x,{Q}^2\\right)\\sim \\Delta G\\left(x,{Q}^2\\right)\\sim {\\left(\\frac{1}{2}\\right)}^{3.66\\sqrt{\\frac{\\alpha_s{N}_c}{2\\uppi}}}, $$\\end{document}in agreement with [2] within the precision of our numerical evaluation. (Here Nc is the number of quark colors.) We also investigate the ratios of the quark and gluon OAM distributions to their helicity distribution counterparts in the small-x region.

Probing the Gluon Orbital Angular Momentum at the EIC

Probing the Gluon Orbital Angular Momentum at the EIC

Signature of the Gluon Orbital Angular Momentum.

We propose a novel observable for the experimental detection of the gluon orbital angular momentum (OAM) that constitutes the proton spin sum rule. We consider longitudinal double spin asymmetry in exclusive dijet production in electron-proton scattering and demonstrate that the cosϕ azimuthal angle correlation between the scattered electron and proton is a sensitive probe of the gluon OAM at small x and its interplay with the gluon helicity. We also present a numerical estimate of the cross section for the kinematics of the Electron-Ion Collider.

What we know and what we don’t know about the proton spin after 30 years

More than three decades ago, the European Muon Collaboration published a surprising result on the spin structure of the proton: the spins of its three quark components account for only a small part of the spin of the proton. Ever since, theoretical and experimental progress has been made in understanding the origins of the proton spin. In this Review, we discuss what has been learned so far, what is still missing and what could be learned from the upcoming experiments, including the Jefferson Lab 12 GeV upgrade and the proposed Electron-Ion Collider. In particular, we focus on first-principles calculations and experimental measurements of the total gluon helicity ΔG, and the quark and gluon orbital angular momenta.

Orbital angular momentum at small x

We determine the small Bjorken x asymptotics of the quark and gluon orbital angular momentum (OAM) distributions in the proton in the double-logarithmic approximation (DLA), which resums powers of αs ln2(1/x) with αs the strong coupling constant. Starting with the operator definitions for the quark and gluon OAM, we simplify them at small x, relating them, respectively, to the polarized dipole amplitudes for the quark and gluon helicities defined in our earlier works. Using the small-x evolution equations derived for these polarized dipole amplitudes earlier we arrive at the following small-x asymptotics of the quark and gluon OAM distributions in the large-Nc limit:1aLq+q¯xQ2=−ΔΣxQ2∼1x43αsNc2π,\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}\t\t\t\t\\usepackage{amsmath}\t\t\t\t\\usepackage{wasysym}\t\t\t\t\\usepackage{amsfonts}\t\t\t\t\\usepackage{amssymb}\t\t\t\t\\usepackage{amsbsy}\t\t\t\t\\usepackage{mathrsfs}\t\t\t\t\\usepackage{upgreek}\t\t\t\t\\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt}\t\t\t\t\\begin{document}$$ {L}_{q+\\overline{q}}\\left(x,{Q}^2\\right)=-\\Delta \\Sigma \\left(x,{Q}^2\\right)\\sim {\\left(\\frac{1}{x}\\right)}^{\\frac{4}{\\sqrt{3}}\\kern0.5em \\sqrt{\\frac{\\alpha_s\\kern0.5em {N}_c}{2\\pi }}}, $$\\end{document}1bLGxQ2∼ΔGxQ2∼1x1343αsNc2π.\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal}\t\t\t\t\\usepackage{amsmath}\t\t\t\t\\usepackage{wasysym}\t\t\t\t\\usepackage{amsfonts}\t\t\t\t\\usepackage{amssymb}\t\t\t\t\\usepackage{amsbsy}\t\t\t\t\\usepackage{mathrsfs}\t\t\t\t\\usepackage{upgreek}\t\t\t\t\\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt}\t\t\t\t\\begin{document}$$ {L}_G\\left(x,{Q}^2\\right)\\sim \\Delta G\\left(x,{Q}^2\\right)\\sim {\\left(\\frac{1}{x}\\right)}^{\\frac{13}{4\\sqrt{3}}\\kern0.5em \\sqrt{\\frac{\\alpha_s\\kern0.5em {N}_c}{2\\pi }}}. $$\\end{document}

Hunting the Gluon Orbital Angular Momentum at the Electron-Ion Collider.

Applying the connection between the parton Wigner distribution and orbital angular momentum (OAM), we investigate the probe of the gluon OAM in hard scattering processes at the planned electron-ion collider. We show that the single longitudinal target-spin asymmetry in the hard diffractive dijet production is very sensitive to the gluon OAM distribution. The associated spin asymmetry leads to a characteristic azimuthal angular correlation of sin(ϕ_{q}-ϕ_{Δ}), where ϕ_{Δ} and ϕ_{q} are the azimuthal angles of the proton momentum transfer and the relative transverse momentum between the quark-antiquark pair. This study may motivate a first measurement of the gluon OAM in the proton spin sum rule.

Contribution of orbital angular momentum to the nucleon spin

We have calculated the orbital angular momentum of quarks and gluons in the nucleon. The calculations are carried out in the next to leading order utilizing the so-called valon model. It is found that the average quark orbital angular momentum is positive, but small, and the average gluon orbital angular momentum is negative and large. We also report on some regularities about the total angular momentum of the quarks and the gluon, as well as on the orbital angular momentum of the separate partons. We have also provided partonic angular momentum, [Formula: see text] as a function of [Formula: see text].

The parton orbital angular momentum: Status and prospects

Theoretical progress on the formulation and classification of the quark and gluon orbital angular momenta (OAM) is reviewed. Their relation to parton distributions and open questions and puzzles are discussed. We give a status report on the lattice calculation of the parton kinetic and canonical OAM and point out several strategies to calculate the quark and gluon canonical OAM on the lattice.

Orbital angular momentum and generalized transverse momentum distribution

We show that, when boosted to the infinite momentum frame, the quark and gluon orbital angular momentum operators defined in the nucleon spin sum rule of X. S. Chen et al. are the same as those derived from generalized transverse momentum distributions. This completes the connection between the infinite momentum limit of each term in that sum rule and experimentally measurable observables. We also show that these orbital angular momentum operators can be defined locally, and discuss the strategies of calculating them in lattice QCD.

Wigner distributions for gluons in a light-front dressed quark model

We present a calculation of Wigner distributions for gluons in a light-front dressed quark model. We calculate the kinetic and canonical gluon orbital angular momentum and spin-orbit correlation of the gluons in this model.

Gluon contribution to the Sivers effect. COMPASS results on deuteron target

Sivers effect for gluons is connected to gluon orbital angular momentum which may be the missing part of the nucleon spin puzzle. We present a method of extraction of Sivers effect for gluons from COMPASS SIDIS data on transversely polarised target. In order to access the Sivers effect for gluons photon-gluon fusion (PGF) process is used. To enhance the fraction of PGF in the sample high-pT hadron pair events are selected. The method is based on a assumption that there are 3 processes contributing to the muon-nucleon scattering: PGF, leading process and QCD Compton process. Then one performs a weighting procedure which enables to extract the asymmetries for the 3 contributing processes simultaneously. In order to do that a neural network trained by a Monte Carlo to assign to each event 3 probabilities corresponding to the 3 processes is needed. Finaly we show results of Sivers effect for gluons extraction on COMPASS data with transversely polarised deuteron target. A PGF sinΦ 2h –Φ S = −0.14 ± 0.15 (stat.) at ‹XG › = 0.126.

Gauge invariance, canonical quantization and Poincaré covariance in nucleon structure

There are different quark and gluon momentum, spin and orbital angular momentum operators used in the study of nucleon structure. We analyze the physical contents of these operators and propose a new set of operators based on gauge invariance principle, canonical quantization rule and Poincaré covariance. Atomic structure is a simpler testing ground of these operators and has been analyzed together. These new operators are the gauge invariant version of the gauge non-invariant canonical version used in physics since the establishment of quantum mechanics and reduce to the familiar canonical ones in Coulomb gauge.

Proper identification of the gluon spin

Properties of the recently proposed gauge-invariant gluon spin Sg are studied and compared to the usually defined “gluon polarization” Δg. By explicit 1-loop calculations in a quark state, it is found that Sg=59Δg. Furthermore, 45 of Sg can actually be identified as a “static-field” contribution and shown to cancel exactly an analogous static term in the gluon orbital angular momentum Lg, leaving Sg+Lg unaltered. These observations suggest that by an alternative definition, the gluon contribution to the nucleon spin may be drastically smaller than in the conventional wisdom.

Phenomenological analysis of the nucleon spin contents and their scale dependence

In the past few years, a great deal of evidence has accumulated which indicates that the gluon polarization inside the nucleon is likely to be small at least at the low renormalization scales. On the other hand, the recent lattice QCD analyses suggest that the net orbital angular momentum carried by the quarks is nearly zero. There is also some indication, noted by Brodsky and Gardner based on the COMPASS observation of small single-spin asymmetry on the isoscalar deuteron target, that the gluon orbital angular momentum inside the nucleon is likely to be small. Naively combining all these observations, we are led to a rather embarrassing conclusion that the nucleon constituents altogether do not carry an adequate amount of angular momentum saturating the total nucleon spin. We show that this somewhat confused state of affairs can be cleared up only by paying careful attention to the scale dependencies of the nucleon spin decomposition.

Non-Spherical Shapes of the Proton: Existence, Measurement, and Computation

How can the spin 1/2 object known as the proton have a non-spherical shape? Why would a physicist even think of such a concept? Can a non-sphericity (or pretzelocity) be measured or computed? This article is concerned with such questions. The notion that the proton might not have a spherical shape has its impetus in the discovery that the spins of quarks and anti-quarks account for only about 30% of the total angular momentum [1]. Many experiments have sought the origins of the remainder, expected to arise from quark and gluon orbital angular momentum or from pairs of strange quarks.

Evidence for the absence of gluon orbital angular momentum in the nucleon

The Sivers mechanism for the single-spin asymmetry in unpolarized lepton scattering from a transversely polarized nucleon is driven by the orbital angular momentum carried by its quark and gluon constituents, combined with QCD final-state interactions. Both quark and gluon mechanisms can generate such a single-spin asymmetry, though only the quark mechanism can explain the small single-spin asymmetry measured by the COMPASS collaboration on the deuteron, suggesting the gluon mechanism is small relative to the quark mechanism. We detail empirical studies through which the gluon and quark orbital angular momentum contributions, quark-flavor by quark-flavor, can be elucidated.

Initial-state interactions in the unpolarized Drell-Yan process

We show that initial-state interactions contribute to the $\cos 2 \phi$ distribution in unpolarized Drell-Yan lepton pair production $p p$ and $ p \bar p \to \ell^+ \ell^- X$, without suppression. The asymmetry is expressed as a product of chiral-odd distributions $h_1^\perp(x_1,\bm{p}_\perp^2)\times \bar h_1^\perp(x_2,\bm{k}_\perp^2) $, where the quark-transversity function $h_1^\perp(x,\bm{p}_\perp^2)$ is the transverse momentum dependent, light-cone momentum distribution of transversely polarized quarks in an {\it unpolarized} proton. We compute this (naive) $T$-odd and chiral-odd distribution function and the resulting $\cos 2 \phi$ asymmetry explicitly in a quark-scalar diquark model for the proton with initial-state gluon interaction. In this model the function $h_1^\perp(x,\bm{p}_\perp^2)$ equals the $T$-odd (chiral-even) Sivers effect function $f^\perp_{1T}(x,\bm{p}_\perp^2)$. This suggests that the single-spin asymmetries in the SIDIS and the Drell-Yan process are closely related to the $\cos 2 \phi$ asymmetry of the unpolarized Drell-Yan process, since all can arise from the same underlying mechanism. This provides new insight regarding the role of quark and gluon orbital angular momentum as well as that of initial- and final-state gluon exchange interactions in hard QCD processes.

A quark model analysis of orbital angular momentum

Orbital Angular Momentum (OAM) twist-two parton distributions are studied. At the low energy, hadronic, scale we calculate them for the relativistic MIT bag model and for non-relativistic potential quark models. We reach the scale of the data by leading order evolution using the OPE and perturbative QCD. We confirm that the contribution of quarks and gluons OAM to the nucleon spin grows with Q 2, and it can be relevant at the experimental scale, even if it is negligible at the hadronic scale, irrespective of the model used. The sign and shape of the quark OAM distribution at high Q 2 may depend strongly on the relative size of the OAM and spin distributions at the hadronic scale. Sizeable quark OAM distributions at the hadronic scale, as proposed by several authors, can produce the dominant contribution to the nucleon spin at high Q 2. As expected by general arguments, we obtain, that the large gluon OAM contribution is almost cancelled by the gluon spin contribution.

Implications of color gauge symmetry for nucleon spin structure

We study the chromodynamical gauge symmetry in relation to the internal spin structure of the nucleon. We show that 1) even in the helicity eigenstates the gauge-dependent spin and orbital angular momentum operators do not have gauge-independent matrix element; 2) the evolution equations for the gluon spin take very different forms in the Feynman and axial gauges, but yield the same leading behavior in the asymptotic limit; 3) the complete evolution of the gauge-dependent orbital angular momenta appears intractable in the light-cone gauge. We define a new gluon orbital angular momentum distribution $L_g(x)$ which {\it is} an experimental observable and has a simple scale evolution. However, its physical interpretation makes sense only in the light-cone gauge just like the gluon helicity distribution $\Delta g(x)$y.