Measurement Of Azimuthal Asymmetries Research Articles

Transverse-spin-dependent azimuthal asymmetries of pion and kaon pairs produced in muon-proton and muon-deuteron semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering

A set of measurements of azimuthal asymmetries in the production of pairs of identified hadrons in deep-inelastic scattering of muons on transversely polarised 6LiD (deuteron) and NH3 (proton) targets is presented. All available data collected in the years 2003–2004 and 2007/2010 with the COMPASS spectrometer using a muon beam of 160GeV/c at the CERN SPS were analysed. The asymmetries provide access to the transversity distribution functions via a fragmentation function that in principle may be independently obtained from e+e− annihilation data. Results are presented, discussed and compared to existing measurements as well as to model predictions. Asymmetries of π+π− pairs measured with the proton target as a function of the Bjorken scaling variable are sizeable in the range x>0.032, indicating non-vanishing transversity distribution and di-hadron interference fragmentation functions. As already pointed out by several authors, the small asymmetries of π+π− measured on the 6LiD target can be interpreted as indication for a cancellation of u and d-quark transversity distributions.

Contribution of exclusive diffractive processes to the measured azimuthal asymmetries in SIDIS

Hadron leptoproduction in Semi-Inclusive measurements of Deep-Inelastic Scattering (SIDIS) on unpolarised nucleons allows one to get information on the intrinsic transverse momentum of quarks in a nucleon and on the Boer-Mulders function through the measurement of azimuthal modulations in the cross section. These modulations were recently measured by the HERMES experiment at DESY on proton and deuteron targets, and by the COMPASS experiment using the CERN SPS muon beam and a 6LiD target. In both cases, the amplitudes of the cos⁡ϕh and cos⁡2ϕh modulations show strong kinematic dependences for both positive and negative hadrons. It has been known since some time that the measured final-state hadrons in those SIDIS experiments receive a contribution from exclusive diffractive production of vector mesons, particularly important at large values of z, the fraction of the virtual photon energy carried by the hadron. In previous measurements of azimuthal asymmetries this contribution was not taken into account, because it was not known that it could distort the azimuthal modulations. Presently, a method to evaluate the contribution of the exclusive reactions to the azimuthal asymmetries measured by COMPASS has been developed. The subtraction of this contribution results in a better understanding of the kinematic effects, and the remaining non-zero cos⁡2ϕh modulation gives indication for a non-zero Boer-Mulders effect.

Azimuthal asymmetry of recoil electrons in neutrino–electron elastic scattering as signature of neutrino nature

In this paper, we show how a presence of the exotic scalar, tensor weak interactions in addition to the standard vector-axial (V-A) one may help to distinguish the Dirac from Majorana neutrinos in the elastic scattering of (anti)neutrino beam off the unpolarized electrons in the limit of vanishing (anti)neutrino mass. We assume that the incoming (anti)neutrino beam comes from the polarized muon decay at rest and is the left-right chiral mixture with assigned direction of the transversal spin polarization with respect to the production plane. We display that the azimuthal asymmetry in the angular distribution of recoil electrons is generated by the interference terms between the standard and exotic couplings, which are proportional to the transversal (anti)neutrino spin polarization and independent of the neutrino mass. This asymmetry for the Majorana neutrinos is distinct from the one for the Dirac neutrinos through the absence of interference between the standard and tensor couplings. Additionally, the interference term between the standard and scalar coupling of the only left chiral neutrinos, absent in the Dirac case, appears. We also indicate the possibility of utilizing the azimuthal asymmetry measurements to search for the new CP-violating phases. Our analysis is model-independent and consistent with the current upper limits on the non-standard couplings.

Recent results on TMDs from the HERMES experiment

HERMES has taken a wealth of deep-inelastic scattering data using the 27.6 GeV polarized lepton beam at HERA and various pure gas targets, both unpolarized and polarized, which opened the door to several unique results. Among them are the first evidences for the naive-T-odd Sivers and Collins effects. An overview of recent HERMES results on measurement of azimuthal asymmetries in semi-inclusive production of pions, charged kaons and (anti)protons is presented.

Nucleon tensor charge from Collins azimuthal asymmetry measurements

We investigate the nucleon tensor charge from current experiments by a combined analysis of the Collins asymmetries in two hadron production in $e^+e^-$ annihilations and semi-inclusive hadron production in deep inelastic scattering processes. The transverse momentum dependent evolution is taken into account, for the first time, in the global fit of the Collins fragmentation functions and the quark transversity distributions at the approximate next-to-leading logarithmic order. We obtain the nucleon tensor charge contribution from up and down quarks as $\delta u=+0.30^{+0.12}_{-0.08}$ and $\delta d=-0.20_{-0.11}^{+0.28}$ at 90\% confidence level for momentum fraction $0.0065 \le x_B \le 0.35$ and $Q^2=$ 10 GeV$^2$.

Measurement of the Polarised Drell-Yan process at COMPASS

The COMPASS experiment at CERN has been playing an important role in the studies of the spin content of the nucleon. The Semi-Inclusive Deep Inelastic Scattering (SIDIS) process gives access to the transverse momentum dependent parton distribution functions (TMDs) by the measurement of azimuthal asymmetries that have been studied in COMPASS and published in recent years. TMDs are also accessible by the transversely polarised Drell-Yan (DY) process which will be measured in COMPASS. This will be the first ever polarised DY measurement. The valence quarks region will be dominant due to the use of a negative pion beam at 190 GeV/c momentum impinging on a transversely polarised ammonia target. The QCD prediction that Sivers TMD change sign when ac- cessed by SIDIS or by DY will be checked by the COMPASS measurement. The data taking is scheduled to start in the fall of this year. After one year of data collection, a sta- tistical error below 2% in the azimuthal asymmetry related to the u quark Sivers function is expected. Details of the final experimental setup will be presented.

Transverse spin effects in hadron-pair production from semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering

First measurements of azimuthal asymmetries in hadron-pair production in deep-inelastic scattering of muons on transversely polarised LiD6 (deuteron) and NH3 (proton) targets are presented. The data were taken in the years 2002–2004 and 2007 with the COMPASS spectrometer using a muon beam of 160 GeV/c at the CERN SPS. The asymmetries provide access to the transversity distribution functions, without involving the Collins effect as in single hadron production. The sizeable asymmetries measured on the NH3 target indicate non-vanishing u-quark transversity and two-hadron interference fragmentation functions. The small asymmetries measured on the LiD6 target can be interpreted as indication for a cancellation of u- and d-quark transversities.

Overview of recent HERMES results

The HERMES experiment at DESY, Hamburg, designed to study the spin structure of the nucleon, produced precise results on polarized proton, deuteron and neutron structure functions from measurements of double-spin asymmetries in inclusive deep-inelastic scattering. Reliable hadron identification at HERMES allowed the extraction of the gluon polarization and of flavor-separated quark (anti-quark) helicity distribution functions from analysis of semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering data. During the last decade HERMES has extended its program towards understanding multidimensional pictures of the nucleon at the partonic level. These are described by recently developed formalisms of generalized parton distributions and transverse momentum dependent parton distribution functions. Measurements of azimuthal asymmetries in exclusive real photon and meson production processes can constrain generalized parton distributions, while analysis of data on azimuthal asymmetries in semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering can provide access to transverse momentum dependent distributions. An overview of recent HERMES results on azimuthal asymmetries measured in deeply virtual Compton scattering, semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering, and inclusive hadron electroproduction is presented.

Measurement of azimuthal asymmetries associated with deeply virtual Compton scattering on a longitudinally polarized deuterium target

Azimuthal asymmetries in exclusive electroproduction of a real photon from a longitudinally polarized deuterium target are measured with respect to target polarization alone and with respect to target polarization combined with beam helicity and/or beam charge. The asymmetries appear in the distribution of the real photons in the azimuthal angle ϕ around the virtual photon direction, relative to the lepton scattering plane. The asymmetries arise from the deeply virtual Compton scattering process and its interference with the Bethe–Heitler process. The results for the beam-charge and beam-helicity asymmetries from a tensor polarized deuterium target with vanishing vector polarization are shown to be compatible with those from an unpolarized deuterium target, which is expected for incoherent scattering dominant at larger momentum transfer. Furthermore, the results for the single target-spin asymmetry and for the double-spin asymmetry are found to be compatible with the corresponding asymmetries previously measured on a hydrogen target. For coherent scattering on the deuteron at small momentum transfer to the target, these findings imply that the tensor contribution to the cross section is small. Furthermore, the tensor asymmetry is found to be compatible with zero.

Measurement of azimuthal asymmetries associated with deeply virtual Compton scattering on an unpolarized deuterium target

Azimuthal asymmetries in exclusive electroproduction of a real photon from an unpolarized deuterium target are measured with respect to beam helicity and charge. They appear in the distribution of these photons in the azimuthal angle ϕ around the virtual-photon direction, relative to the lepton scattering plane. The extracted asymmetries are attributed to either the deeply virtual Compton scattering process or its interference with the Bethe–Heitler process. They are compared with earlier results on the proton target. In the measured kinematic region, the beam-charge asymmetry amplitudes and the leading amplitudes of the beam-helicity asymmetries on an unpolarized deuteron target are compatible with the results from unpolarized protons.

Measurement of azimuthal asymmetries with respect to both beam charge and transverse target polarization in exclusive electroproduction of real photons

Azimuthal asymmetries in exclusive electroproduction of real photons are measured for the first time with respect to transverse target polarisation, providing new constraints on Generalized Parton Distributions. From the same data set on a hydrogen target, new results for the beam-charge asymmetry are also extracted with better precision than those previously reported. By comparing model calculations with measured asymmetries attributed to the interference between the deeply virtual Compton scattering and Bethe-Heitler processes, a model-dependent constraint is obtained on the total angular momenta carried by up and down quarks in the nucleon.

Inclusive properties of hadronic final states at HERA

Recent results from the H1 and ZEUS collaborations using the hadronic final state in high Q2 Deep-Inelastic Scattering to investigate QCD are presented. Measurements of azimuthal asymmetries, event shapes and the charged particle scaled momentum spectra are compared with next-to-leading order perturbative QCD predictions and with Monte Carlo models.

Measurement of azimuthal asymmetries in neutral current deep inelastic scattering at HERA

The distribution of the azimuthal angle of charged and neutral hadrons relative to the lepton plane has been studied for neutral current deep inelastic $ep$ scattering using an integrated luminosity of 45 pb-1 taken with the ZEUS detector at HERA. The measurements were made in the hadronic centre-of-mass system. The analysis exploits the energy-flow method, which allows the measurement to be made over a larger range of pseudorapidity compared to previous results. The dependence of the moments of the azimuthal distributions on the pseudorapidity and minimum transverse energy of the final-state hadrons are presented. Although the predictions from next-to-leading-order QCD describe the data better than do the Monte Carlo models incorporating leading-logarithm parton showers, they still fail to describe the magnitude of the asymmetries. This suggests that higher-order calculations may be necessary to describe these data.

Deeply virtual compton scattering at HERA

Deeply virtual Compton scattering has recently been studied by three HERA experiments, H1, ZEUS and HERMES, covering a broad range of kinematic regimes. We present cross section measurments of the two collider experiments in the kinematic region 2< Q 2<100 GeV 2 and 30< W<140 GeV, and compare them to QCD-based calculations. HERMES measurements of azimuthal asymmetries and their kinematical dependences are presented for Q 2>1 GeV 2 and 2< W<7 GeV.

Azimuthal asymmetries at HERA: theoretical aspects

We comment on theoretical aspects of the measurement of azimuthal asymmetries in semi-inclusive charged particle production, made recently by the ZEUS Collaboration at HERA. By taking the ratio of the two measured asymmetries, we find good agreement between the perturbative QCD prediction and the experimental data. To separate the perturbative and nonperturbative contributions to the asymmetries, we suggest that the azimuthal asymmetries of the transverse energy flow be measured as a function of a variable $q_T$ related to the pseudorapidity of the energy flow.

Measurement of azimuthal asymmetries in deep inelastic scattering

The distribution of the azimuthal angle for the charged hadrons has been studied in the hadronic centre-of-mass system for neutral current deep inelastic positron–proton scattering with the ZEUS detector at HERA. Measurements of the dependence of the moments of this distribution on the transverse momenta of the charged hadrons are presented. Asymmetries that can be unambiguously attributed to perturbative QCD processes have been observed for the first time.

Microwave Measurements of Azimuthal Asymmetries in Accelerating Fields of Disk-Loaded Waveguides

This paper presents microwave measurements of azymuthal asymmetries in the accelerating fields of the SLAC disk-loaded waveguide. These field asymmetries lead to RF phase-dependent beam steering which can be detrimental to operation of linear accelerators in general and of the SLAC Linear Collider in particular.

Cosmic-ray azimuthal asymmetry measurements at Mawson, Antarctica

Observations in eight directions of the hard-component azimuthal intensity distribution at Mawson show that the observed azimuthal asymmetries are markedly different from those theoretically predicted. In particular, where a North-South asymmetry of the order of 0.7% is expected a zero value is observed.

Cosmic-ray azimuthal asymmetry measurements at mawson, antarctica

Observations in eight directions of the hard-component azimuthal intensity distribution at Mawson show that the observed azimuthal asymmetries are markedly different from those theoretically predicted. In particular, where a North-South asymmetry of the order of 0.7% is expected a zero value is observed.