Polarized NH3 Targets Research Articles

Collins and Sivers transverse-spin asymmetries in inclusive muoproduction of ρ0 mesons

The production of vector mesons in deep inelastic scattering is an interesting yet scarcely explored channel to study the transverse spin structure of the nucleon and the spin-dependence of fragmentation. The COMPASS collaboration has performed the first measurement of the Collins and Sivers asymmetries for inclusively produced ρ0 mesons. The analysis is based on the data set collected in deep inelastic scattering in 2010 using a 160GeV/cμ+ beam impinging on a transversely polarized NH3 target. The ρ0 mesons are selected from oppositely charged hadron pairs, and the asymmetries are extracted as a function of the Bjorken-x variable, the transverse momentum of the pair and the fraction of the energy z carried by the pair. Indications for positive Collins and Sivers asymmetries are observed.

Measurement of qT-weighted TSAs in 2015 COMPASS Drell–Yan data

In the polarised Drell–Yan experiment at the COMPASS facility at CERN the beam of negatively-charged pions with 190GeV/c momentum and intensity about 108 pions/s interacted with transversely polarised NH3 target. Muon pairs produced in Drell–Yan process (DY) were detected. Recently, the first ever Transverse Spin Asymmetries (TSAs) measurement in DY has been presented by COMPASS. A complementary analysis of the TSAs weighted by powers of the dimuon transverse momentum qT are presented. In the Transverse Momentum Dependent (TMD) PDF formalism, the qT-weighted TSAs can be written in terms of products of the TMD PDFs of two colliding hadrons, unlike the conventional TSAs, which are their convolutions over quarks transverse momenta. The results are compared in a straightforward way with the weighted Sivers asymmetry in the SIDIS process, released by COMPASS in 2016.

Results on longitudinal spin physics at COMPASS

The COMPASS experiment at the CERN SPS has taken data on deep inelastic scattering of polarised muons on a polarised NH3 target in 2007 and 2011 and on a polarised LiD target in 2002–2004 and 2006. The new results on the longitudinal double spin asymmetry A 1 p and the spin-dependent structure function g 1 p obtained from the 2011 data set are presented. These results are used in a NLO QCD fit to the world data to obtain the polarised parton distributions. Also an update of the results on the Bjorken sum rule, connecting the integral of the non-singlet spin-dependent structure function with the ratio of the weak coupling constants, will be given.Direct access to the gluon polarisation is possible via the photon gluon fusion process in semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering. This process is studied using the p T dependence of charged hadron asymmetries. The latest results indicate a positive gluon polarisation in the kinematic region of COMPASS

Results on longitudinal spin physics at COMPASS

The COMPASS experiment at the CERN SPS has taken data for deep inelastic scattering of polarised muons off a polarised NH3 target in 2007 and 2011 and off a polarised 6LiD target in 2002–2004 and 2006.We present our new results on the longitudinal double spin asymmetry A1p and the spin-dependent structure function g1p obtained from the 2011 data set. These results are used in a NLO QCD fit to the world data to obtain the polarised parton distributions. Also an update on our results on the Bjorken sum rule, connecting the integral of the non-singlet spin-dependent structure function with the ratio of the weak coupling constants, is given.The gluon polarisation can be accessed directly via the photon gluon fusion process in semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering. This process is studied using the pT dependence of charged hadron asymmetries. The latest results indicate a positive gluon polarisation in the kinematic region of COMPASS.

Hard Exclusive Meson Production at COMPASS

The concept of Generalized Parton Distributions (GPDs) combines two-dimensional spatial information given by form factors, with longitudinal momentum information from Parton Distribution Functions. GPDs provide comprehensive description of the nucleon structure involving a wealth of new information. For instance, according to Ji’s sum rule, the GPDs [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] enable access to the total angular momenta of quarks, antiquarks and gluons. While [Formula: see text] can be approached using measurements of electroproduction cross sections, asymmetry measurements in hard exclusive meson production off transversely polarized targets can help to constrain the GPD [Formula: see text] and chiral-odd GPDs. In 2007 and 2010 the COMPASS experiment at CERN collected data by scattering a [Formula: see text] muon beam off a transversely polarized NH3 target. Exclusive vector-meson production [Formula: see text] with a [Formula: see text] or [Formula: see text] meson in the final state is studied and five single-spin and three double-spin azimuthal asymmetries are measured.

Polarized Drell-Yan at COMPASS-II: Transverse Spin Physics Program

Successful realization of polarized Drell-Yan physics program is one of the main goals of the second stage of the COMPASS experiment. Drell-Yan measurements with high energy (190 GeV/c) pion beam and transversely polarized NH3 target have been initiated by a pilot-run in the October 2014 and will be followed by 140 days of data taking in 2015. In the past twelve years COMPASS experiment performed series of SIDIS measurements with high energy muon beam and transversely polarized deuteron and proton targets. Results obtained for Sivers effect and other target transverse spin dependent and unpolarized azimuthal asymmetries in SIDIS serve as an important input for general understanding of spin-structure of the nucleon and are being used in numerous theoretical and phenomenological studies being carried out in the field of transvers-spin physics. Measurement of the Sivers and all other azimuthal effects in polarized Drell-Yan at COMPASS will reveal another side of the spin-puzzle providing a link between SIDIS and Drell-Yan branches. This will be a unique possibility to test universality and key-features of transverse momentum dependent distribution functions (TMD PDFs) using essentially same experimental setup and exploring same kinematic domain. In this review main physics aspects of future COMPASS polarized Drell-Yan measurement of azimuthal transverse spin asymmetries will be presented, giving a particular emphasis on the link with very recent COMPASS results obtained for SIDIS transverse spin asymmetries from four ”Drell-Yan” [Formula: see text]-ranges.

The spin structure function [formula omitted] of the proton and a test of the Bjorken sum rule

New results for the double spin asymmetry A1p and the proton longitudinal spin structure function g1p are presented. They were obtained by the COMPASS Collaboration using polarised 200 GeV muons scattered off a longitudinally polarised NH3 target. The data were collected in 2011 and complement those recorded in 2007 at 160 GeV, in particular at lower values of x. They improve the statistical precision of g1p(x) by about a factor of two in the region x≲0.02. A next-to-leading order QCD fit to the g1 world data is performed. It leads to a new determination of the quark spin contribution to the nucleon spin, ΔΣ, ranging from 0.26 to 0.36, and to a re-evaluation of the first moment of g1p. The uncertainty of ΔΣ is mostly due to the large uncertainty in the present determinations of the gluon helicity distribution. A new evaluation of the Bjorken sum rule based on the COMPASS results for the non-singlet structure function g1NS(x,Q2) yields as ratio of the axial and vector coupling constants |gA/gV|=1.22±0.05 (stat.)±0.10 (syst.), which validates the sum rule to an accuracy of about 9%.

Longitudinal spin structure of the nucleon at COMPASS (SPS CERN)

We present new results on longitudinal inclusive double-spin asymmetry A1,p(x) in deep-inelastic muon-proton scattering and proton spin-dependent structure function g1p(x, Q2). New COMPASS data on longitudinal polarised NH3 target were collected during the year 2011 with beam of positive muons with energy E = 200 GeV. Kinematical threshold Q2 ≥ 1 (GeV/c)2 and the fractional energy 0.1 < y < 0.9 allow us to cover low x region down to 0.025.

II – Experimental investigation of transverse spin asymmetries in μ-p SIDIS processes: Sivers asymmetries

The COMPASS Collaboration at CERN has measured the transverse spin azimuthal asymmetry of charged hadrons produced in semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering using a 160 GeV μ+ beam and a transversely polarised NH3 target. The Sivers asymmetry of the proton has been extracted in the Bjorken x range 0.003<x<0.7. The new measurements have small statistical and systematic uncertainties of a few percent and confirm with considerably better accuracy the previous COMPASS measurement. The Sivers asymmetry is found to be compatible with zero for negative hadrons and positive for positive hadrons, a clear indication of a spin–orbit coupling of quarks in a transversely polarised proton. As compared to measurements at lower energy, a smaller Sivers asymmetry for positive hadrons is found in the region x>0.03. The asymmetry is different from zero and positive also in the low x region, where sea-quarks dominate. The kinematic dependence of the asymmetry has also been investigated and results are given for various intervals of hadron and virtual photon fractional energy. In contrast to the case of the Collins asymmetry, the results on the Sivers asymmetry suggest a strong dependence on the four-momentum transfer to the nucleon, in agreement with the most recent calculations.

I – Experimental investigation of transverse spin asymmetries in μ-p SIDIS processes: Collins asymmetries

The COMPASS Collaboration at CERN has measured the transverse spin azimuthal asymmetry of charged hadrons produced in semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering using a 160 GeV μ+ beam and a transversely polarised NH3 target. The Collins asymmetry of the proton was extracted in the Bjorken x range 0.003<x<0.7. These new precise measurements confirm previous measurements from the COMPASS and HERMES Collaborations, which exhibit a definite effect in the valence quark region. The asymmetries for negative and positive hadrons are similar in magnitude and opposite in sign. They are compatible with model calculations in which the u-quark transversity is opposite in sign and somewhat larger than the d-quark transversity distribution function. The asymmetry is extracted as a function of Bjorken x, the relative hadron energy z and the hadron transverse momentum pTh. The high statistics and quality of the data also allow for more detailed investigations of the dependence on the kinematic variables. These studies confirm the leading-twist nature of the Collins asymmetry.

Spin Physics at COMPASS

The COMPASS experiment is a fixed target experiment at the CERN SPS using muon and hadron beams for the investigation of the spin structure of the nucleon and hadron spectroscopy. The main objective of the muon physics program is the study of the spin of the nucleon in terms of its constituents, quarks and gluons. COMPASS has accumulated data during 6 years scattering polarized muons off longitudinally or transversely polarized deuteron (6LiD) or proton (NH3) targets.Results for the gluon polarization are obtained from longitudinal double spin cross section asymmetries using two different channels, open charm production and high transverse momentum hadron pairs, both proceeding through the photon-gluon fusion process. Also, the longitudinal spin structure functions of the proton and the deuteron were measured in parallel as well as the helicity distributions for the three lightest quark flavours.With a transversely polarized target, results were obtained with proton and deuteron targets for the Collins and Sivers asymmetries for charged hadrons as well as for identified kaons and pions. The Collins asymmetry is sensitive to the transverse spin structure of the nucleon, while the Sivers asymmetry reflects correlations between the quark transverse momentum and the nucleon spin.Recently, a new proposal for the COMPASS II experiment was accepted by the CERN SPS which includes two new topics: Exclusive reactions like DVCS and DVMP using the muon beam and a hydrogen target to study generalized parton distributions and Drell-Yan measurements using a pion beam and a polarized NH3 target to study transverse momentum dependent distributions.

Single spin asymmetries for identified hadrons at COMPASS

COMPASS is a fixed target experiment at CERN SPS, dedicated to the study of the nucleon spin structure and hadron spectroscopy. The transverse spin structure of the nucleon is investigated by measuring semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering (SIDIS) of a 160 GeV/c longitudinally polarized muon beam off transversely polarised targets. Particle Identification (PID) is performed with a Ring Imaging CHerenkov detector (RICH) that has been upgraded in 2005. COMPASS took data using transversely polarised 6LiD target from 2002 to 2004 and with a transversely polarised NH3 target in 2007.In this talk the Collins and Sivers asymmetries on polarised proton for charged pions and kaons will be shown for the first time and compared with the same results on polarised deuteron for COMPASS.

The spin-dependent structure function of the proton [formula omitted] and a test of the Bjorken sum rule

The inclusive double-spin asymmetry, A1p, has been measured at COMPASS in deep-inelastic polarised muon scattering off a large polarised NH3 target. The data, collected in the year 2007, cover the range Q2>1(GeV/c)2, 0.004<x<0.7 and improve the statistical precision of g1p(x) by a factor of two in the region x<0.02. The new proton asymmetries are combined with those previously published for the deuteron to extract the non-singlet spin-dependent structure function g1NS(x,Q2). The isovector quark density, Δq3(x,Q2), is evaluated from a NLO QCD fit of g1NS. The first moment of Δq3 is in good agreement with the value predicted by the Bjorken sum rule and corresponds to a ratio of the axial and vector coupling constants |gA/gV|=1.28±0.07(stat.)±0.10(syst.).

Measurement of Deeply Virtual Compton Scattering with a Polarized-Proton Target

The longitudinal target-spin asymmetry AUL for the exclusive electroproduction of high-energy photons was measured for the first time in ep-->e;'pgamma. The data have been accumulated at JLab with the CLAS spectrometer using 5.7 GeV electrons and a longitudinally polarized NH3 target. A significant azimuthal angular dependence was observed, resulting from the interference of the deeply virtual Compton scattering and Bethe-Heitler processes. The amplitude of the sinvarphi moment is 0.252+/-0.042stat+/-0.020sys. Theoretical calculations are in good agreement with the magnitude and the kinematic dependence of the target-spin asymmetry, which is sensitive to the generalized parton distributions H and H.

Measurement of the proton spin structure function g1(x,Q2) for Q2 from 0.15 to 1.6 GeV2 with CLAS.

Double-polarization asymmetries for inclusive ep scattering were measured at Jefferson Lab using 2.6 and 4.3 GeV longitudinally polarized electrons incident on a longitudinally polarized NH3 target in the CLAS detector. The polarized structure function g(1)(x,Q2) was extracted throughout the nucleon resonance region and into the deep inelastic regime, for Q(2)=0.15-1.64 GeV2. The contributions to the first moment Gamma(1)(Q2)= integral g(1)(x,Q2) dx were determined up to Q(2)=1.2 GeV2. Using a parametrization for g(1) in the unmeasured low x regions, the complete first moment was estimated over this Q2 region. A rapid change in Gamma(1) is observed for Q2<1 GeV2, with a sign change near Q(2)=0.3 GeV2, indicating dominant contributions from the resonance region. At Q(2)=1.2 GeV2 our data are below the perturbative QCD evolved scaling value.