Polarized Gluon Distribution Research Articles

Polarized gluon distribution in the proton from holographic light-front QCD

We obtain the gluon parton distribution functions (PDFs) in the proton within the extended light-front holographic QCD framework, where the proton couples with the spin-two Pomeron in Anti-de Sitter space, together with constraints imposed by the Veneziano model. The gluon helicity asymmetry, after satisfying the perturbative QCD constraints at small and large longitudinal momentum regions, agrees with existing experimental measurements. The polarized gluon distribution is consistent with global analyses. We predict the gluon helicity contribution to the proton spin, $\Delta G=0.221^{+0.056}_{-0.044}$, close to the recent analysis with updated data sets and PHENIX measurement and the lattice QCD simulations. We subsequently present the unpolarized and polarized gluon generalized parton distributions in the proton.

An analysis of polarized parton distribution functions with nonlinear QCD evolution equations

We present the polarized parton distribution functions from a QCD analysis of the worldwide polarized deep inelastic scattering data, based on the dynamical parton distribution model. All the sea quarks and gluons are dynamically generated from QCD radiations, with the nonperturbative input comprising only the polarized valence quark distributions. This approach leads to a simple parametrization, which has only seven free parameters. In the analysis, we apply the DGLAP equations with parton-parton recombination corrections. For the first step, the DGLAP equations, parton-parton recombination corrections, and experimental observable g1 are all evaluated at the leading order. The parameterized nonperturbative input at an extremely low Q02 reproduces well the spin-dependent structure functions measured at high Q2. Comparisons with experimental observations and some other polarized parton distribution functions are also shown. Our results are in good agreement with the experimental data and consistent with some other parameterized models. Furthermore, our analysis presents the positive polarized gluon distribution and it suggests that the gluon distribution plays an important role to the proton spin content. The polarized antiquark distributions are non-zero at high Q2 but quite small compared to polarized valence quark distributions, based on this dynamical parton model analysis. This analysis gives smaller statistical uncertainties for the polarized sea quark and gluon distributions, thanks to the fewer free parameters used for the parametrization of the initial polarized PDFs.

Quark and gluon helicity evolution at small x: revised and updated

We revisit the problem of small Bjorken-x evolution of the gluon and flavor-singlet quark helicity distributions in the shock wave (s-channel) formalism. Earlier works on the subject in the same framework [1–3] resulted in an evolution equation for the gluon field-strength F12 and quark “axial current” ψ¯γ\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\overline{\\psi}\\gamma $$\\end{document}+γ5ψ operators (sandwiched between the appropriate light-cone Wilson lines) in the double-logarithmic approximation (summing powers of αs ln2(1/x) with αs the strong coupling constant). In this work, we observe that an important mixing of the above operators with another gluon operator, D←i\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ {}_D{}^{\\leftarrow i} $$\\end{document}Di, also sandwiched between the light-cone Wilson lines (with the repeated transverse index i = 1, 2 summed over), was missing in the previous works [1–3]. This operator has the physical meaning of the sub-eikonal (covariant) phase: its contribution to helicity evolution is shown to be proportional to another sub-eikonal operator, Di − D←i\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ {}_D{}^{\\leftarrow i} $$\\end{document} , which is related to the Jaffe-Manohar polarized gluon distribution [4]. In this work we include this new operator into small-x helicity evolution, and construct novel evolution equations mixing all three operators (Di − D←i\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ {}_D{}^{\\leftarrow i} $$\\end{document}, F12, and ψ¯γ\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\overline{\\psi}\\gamma $$\\end{document}+γ5ψ), generalizing the results of [1–3]. We also construct closed double-logarithmic evolution equations in the large-Nc and large-Nc&Nf limits, with Nc and Nf the numbers of quark colors and flavors, respectively. Solving the large-Nc equations numerically we obtain the following small-x asymptotics of the quark and gluon helicity distributions ∆Σ and ∆G, along with the g1 structure function,∆ΣxQ2∼∆GxQ2∼g1xQ2∼1x3.66αsNc2π\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\Delta \\Sigma \\left(x,{Q}^2\\right)\\sim \\Delta G\\left(x,{Q}^2\\right)\\sim {g}_1\\left(x,{Q}^2\\right)\\sim {\\left(\\frac{1}{x}\\right)}^{3.66\\sqrt{\\frac{\\alpha_s{N}_c}{2\\pi }}} $$\\end{document}in complete agreement with the earlier work by Bartels, Ermolaev and Ryskin [5].

Longitudinal double-spin asymmetry for inclusive jet and dijet production in polarized proton collisions at s=510 GeV

We report measurements of the longitudinal double-spin asymmetry, ALL, for inclusive jet and dijet production in polarized proton-proton collisions at midrapidity and center-of-mass energy s=510 GeV, using the high luminosity data sample collected by the STAR experiment in 2013. These measurements complement and improve the precision of previous STAR measurements at the same center-of-mass energy that probe the polarized gluon distribution function at partonic momentum fraction 0.015≲x≲0.25. The dijet asymmetries are separated into four jet-pair topologies, which provide further constraints on the x dependence of the polarized gluon distribution function. These measurements are in agreement with previous STAR measurements and with predictions from current next-to-leading-order global analyses. They provide more precise data at low dijet invariant mass that will better constrain the shape of the polarized gluon distribution function of the proton.Received 21 October 2021Accepted 4 April 2022DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.105.092011Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.Published by the American Physical SocietyPhysics Subject Headings (PhySH)Research AreasQuark & gluon jetsPhysical SystemsGluonsPropertiesSpinTechniquesHadron collidersParticles & FieldsNuclear Physics

Gluon EMC effects in nuclear matter

We investigate the gluonic structure of nuclei within a mean-field model of nuclear structure based upon the modification of the structure of a bound nucleon, with the nucleon described by the Nambu–Jona-Lasinio model. This approach has been shown to reproduce the European Muon Collaboration (EMC) effect, involving the ratio of the spin-independent structure functions of a heavier nucleus to that of the deuteron. It also predicts a significant nuclear modification for the spin structure functions, known as the polarized EMC effect. Here we report sizeable nuclear modifications of the gluon distributions (a ‘gluon EMC effect’) for the ratios of both the unpolarized and polarized gluon distributions in nuclear matter to those of a free nucleon.

Polarized gluon pseudodistributions at short distances

We formulate the basic points of the pseudo-PDF approach to the lattice calculation of polarized gluon PDFs. We present the results of our calculations of the one-loop corrections for the bilocal Gμα(z) overset{sim }{G} λβ (0) correlator of gluonic fields. Expressions are given for a general situation when all four indices are arbitrary, and also for specific combinations of indices corresponding to three matrix elements that contain the twist-2 invariant amplitude related to the polarized PDF. We study the evolution properties of these matrix elements, and derive matching relations between Euclidean and light-cone Ioffe-time distributions. These relations are necessary for extraction of the polarized gluon distributions from the lattice data.

Probing gluon helicity with heavy flavor at the Electron-Ion Collider

We propose a new measurement of the heavy flavor hadron double spin asymmetry in deep-inelastic scattering at a future Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) to constrain the polarized gluon distribution function inside the proton. Statistical projection on $D^0$ meson double spin asymmetry is calculated with an EIC central detector using an all-silicon tracker and vertexing subsystem. A first impact study was done by interpreting pseudo-data at next-to-leading order in QCD. The sensitivity of the experimental observable in constraining gluon helicity distribution in a wide range of parton momentum fraction $x$ has been investigated considering different beam energy configurations. This measurement complements the inclusive spin-dependent structure function measurement and provides an opportunity to constrain the gluon helicity distribution in the moderate $x$ region.

Azimuthal angular asymmetry of soft gluon radiation in jet production

We investigate the impact of soft gluon resummation on the azimuthal angle correlation between the total and relative momenta of two energetic final state particles (jets). We show that the initial and final state radiations induce sizable $\cos(\phi)$ and $\cos (2\phi)$ asymmetries in single jet and dijet events, respectively. We numerically evaluate the magnitude of these asymmetries for a number of processes in collider experiments, including diffractive dijet and dilepton production in ultraperipheral $pA$ and $AA$ collisions, inclusive and diffractive dijet production at the EIC and inclusive dijet production in $pp$ collisions at the LHC. In particular, the $\cos (2\phi)$ asymmetry of perturbative origin can dominate over the primordial asymmetry due to the linearly polarized gluon distribution.

Gluon distributions and their applications to Ioffe-time distributions

We investigate unpolarized and polarized gluon distributions and their applications to the Ioffe-time distributions, which are related to lattice QCD calculations of parton distribution functions. Guided by the counting rules based on the perturbative QCD at large momentum fraction $x$ and the color coherence of gluon couplings at small $x$, we parametrize gluon distributions in the helicity basis. By fitting the unpolarized gluon distribution, the inferred polarized gluon distribution from our parametrization agrees with the one from global analysis. A simultaneous fit to both unpolarized and polarized gluon distributions is also performed to explore the model uncertainty. The agreement with the global analysis supports the $(1-x)$ power suppression of the helicity-antialigned distribution relative to the helicity-aligned distribution. The corresponding Ioffe-time distributions and their asymptotic expansions are calculated from the gluon distributions. Our results of the Ioffe-time distributions can provide guidance to the extrapolation of lattice QCD data to the region lacking precise gluonic matrix elements. Therefore, they can help regulate the ill-posed inverse problem associated with extracting the gluon distributions from discrete data from first-principle calculations, which are available in a limited range of the nucleon momentum and the spatial separation between the gluonic currents. Given various limitations in obtaining lattice QCD data at large Ioffe time, phenomenological approaches can provide important complementary information to extract the gluon distributions in the entire $x$ region. The possibility of investigating higher-twist effects and other systematic uncertainties in the contemporary first-principle calculations of parton distributions from phenomenologically well-determined Ioffe-time distributions in the large Ioffe-time region is also discussed.

A still unsettled issue in the nucleon spin decomposition problem: On the role of surface terms and gluon topology

In almost all the past analyses of the decomposition of the nucleon spin into its constituents, surface terms are simply assumed to vanish and not to affect the integrated sum rule of the nucleon spin. However, several authors claim that neglect of surface terms is not necessarily justified, especially owing to possible nontrivial topological configuration of the gluon field in the QCD vacuum. There also exist some arguments indicating that the nontrivial gluon topology would bring about a delta-function type singularity at zero Bjorken variable into the longitudinally polarized gluon distribution function, thereby invalidating a naive partonic sum rule for the total nucleon spin. In the present paper, we carefully examine the role of surface terms in the nucleon spin decomposition problem. We shall argue that surface terms do not prevent us from obtaining a physically meaningful decomposition of the nucleon spin. In particular, we demonstrate that nontrivial topology of the gluon field would not bring about a delta-function type singularity into the longitudinally polarized gluon distribution functions. We also make some critical comments on the recent analyses of the role of surface terms in the density level decomposition of the total nucleon angular momentum as well as that of the total photon angular momentum.

Accessing linearly polarized gluon distribution in J/ψ production at the electron-ion collider

We calculate the $cos~2 \phi$ asymmetry in $J/\psi$ production in electron-proton collision for the kinematics of the planned electron-ion collider (EIC). This directly probes the Weisz\"acker-Williams (WW) type linearly polarized gluon distribution. Assuming generalized factorization, we calculate the asymmetry at next-to-leading-order (NLO) when the energy fraction of the $J/\psi$ satisfies $z<1$ and the dominating subprocess is $\gamma^* +g \rightarrow c + {\bar c}+g$. We use non-relativistic QCD based color singlet model for $J/\psi$ production. We investigate the small $x$ region which will be accessible at the EIC. We present the upper bound of the asymmetry, as well as estimate it using a (i) Gaussian type parametrization for the TMDs and (ii) McLerran-Venugopalan model at small $x$. We find small but sizable asymmetry in all the three cases.

Inclusive jet production as a probe of polarized parton distribution functions at a future EIC

We present a detailed phenomenological study of polarized inclusive jet production in electron-proton collisions at a future Electron-Ion Collider (EIC). Our analysis is performed at next-to-leading order in perturbative QCD using the numerical code DISTRESS and includes all relevant partonic channels and resolved photon contributions. We elucidate the role of different kinematic regions in probing different aspects of proton and photon structure. We emphasize the importance of inclusive jet measurements and high collision energies at a future EIC in order to further constrain the polarized gluon distribution of the proton.

Next-to-leading order QCD corrections to inclusive heavy-flavor production in polarized deep-inelastic scattering

We provide a first calculation of the complete next-to-leading order QCD corrections for heavy flavor contributions to the inclusive structure function $g_1$ in longitudinally polarized deep-inelastic scattering. The results are derived with largely analytical methods and retain the full dependence on the heavy quark's mass. We discuss all relevant technical details of the calculation and present numerical results for the heavy quark scaling functions. We perform important crosschecks to verify our results in the known limit of photoproduction and for the unpolarized electroproduction of heavy quarks. We also compare our calculations to the available, partial results in the polarized case, in particular, in the limit of asymptotically large photon virtualities, and analyze the behavior of the scaling functions near threshold. First steps towards phenomenological applications are taken by providing some estimates for inclusive charm production in polarized deep-inelastic scattering at a future electron-ion collider and studying their sensitivity to the polarized gluon distribution. The residual dependence of heavy quark electroproduction on unphysical factorization and renormalization scales and on the heavy quark mass is investigated.

Gluonic Distribution in the Constituent Quark and Nucleon Induced by the Instantons

Instanton effects can give large contribution to strong interacting processes, especially at the energy scale where perturbative QCD is no longer valid. However instanton contribution to the gluon contribution in constituent quark and nucleon has never been calculated before. Based on both the constituent quark picture and the instanton model for QCD vacuum, we calculate the unpolarized and polarized gluon distributions in the constituent quark and in the nucleon for the first time. We find that the pion field plays an important role in producing both the unpolarized and the polarized gluon distributions.

Longitudinal Double Spin Asymmetries of π0 - Jet Correlations in Polarized Proton Collisions at s = 510 GeV at STAR

One of the primary goals of the spin physics program at STAR is to constrain the polarized gluon distribution function, [Formula: see text], by measuring the longitudinal double-spin asymmetry ([Formula: see text]) of various final-state channels. Using a jet in the mid-rapidity region [Formula: see text] correlated with an azimuthally back-to-back [Formula: see text] in the forward rapidity region [Formula: see text] provides a new possibility to access the [Formula: see text] distribution at Bjorken-[Formula: see text] down to 0.01. Compared to inclusive jet or inclusive [Formula: see text] measurements, this channel also allows to constrain the initial parton kinematics. In these proceedings, we will present the status of the analysis of the [Formula: see text]-jet [Formula: see text] in longitudinally polarized proton+proton collisions at [Formula: see text] =510 GeV with 80 pb[Formula: see text] of data taken during the 2012 RHIC run. We also compare the projected [Formula: see text] uncertainties to theoretical predictions of the [Formula: see text] by next-to-leading order (NLO) model calculations with different polarized parton distribution functions.

J/psi production in polarized and unpolarized ep collision and Sivers and cos 2phi asymmetries

We calculate the Sivers and cos 2phi azimuthal asymmetries in J/psi production in the polarized and unpolarized semi-inclusive ep collision, respectively, using the formalism based on the transverse momentum-dependent parton distributions (TMDs). The non-relativistic QCD-based color octet model is employed in calculating the J/psi production rate. The Sivers asymmetry in this process directly probes the gluon Sivers function. The estimated Sivers asymmetry at z=1 is negative, which is in good agreement with the COMPASS data. The effect of TMD evolution on the Sivers asymmetry is also investigated. The cos 2phi asymmetry is sizable and probes the linearly polarized gluon distribution in an unpolarized proton.

Back-to-back heavy quark pair production in semi-inclusive DIS

The one-loop correction to heavy quark pair back-to-back production in unpolarized semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering is given in this work in the framework of transverse momentum dependent(TMD) factorization. Both unpolarized and linearly polarized TMD gluon distribution functions are taken into account. A subtraction method based on diagram expansion is used to get finite hard coefficients. It is found the soft and collinear divergences of one-loop amplitude is proportional to tree level ones and can be expressed through several basic scalar triangle and bubble integrals. The subtraction of these divergences is spin independent. Beyond tree level an additional soft factor related to final heavy quark pair must be added into the factorization formula. This soft factor affects the azimuthal angle distribution of virtual photon in a nonperturbative way. Integrating over virtual photon azimuthal angle we construct three weighted cross sections, which depend on only three additional integrated soft factors. These weighted cross sections can be used to extract linearly polarized gluon distribution function. In addition, lepton azimuthal angle is unintegrated in this work, which provides more observables. All hard coefficients relevant to lepton and virtual photon azimuthal angle distributions are given at one-loop level.

Decoupling of the Leading Order DGLAP Evolution Equation with Spin Dependent Structure Functions

We propose an analytical solution for DGLAP evolution equations with polarized splitting functions at the Leading Order (LO) approximation based on the Laplace transform method. It is shown that the DGLAP evolution equations can be decoupled completely into two second order differential equations which then are solved analytically by using the initial conditions $\delta F^{\mathrm {S}}(x,Q^{2})=\mathcal {F}[\partial \delta F^{\mathrm {S}}_{0}(x), \delta F^{\mathrm {S}}_{0}(x)]$ and ${\delta G}(x,Q^{2})=\mathcal {G}[\partial \delta G_{0}(x), \delta G_{0}(x)]$ . We used this method to obtain the polarized structure function of the proton as well as the polarized gluon distribution function inside the proton and compared the numerical results with experimental data of COMPASS, HERMES, and AAC’08 Collaborations. It was found that there is a good agreement between our predictions and the experiments.

Suppression of maximal linear gluon polarization in angular asymmetries

We perform a phenomenological analysis of the cos 2ϕ azimuthal asymmetry in virtual photon plus jet production induced by the linear polarization of gluons in unpolarized pA collisions. Although the linearly polarized gluon distribution becomes maximal at small x, TMD evolution leads to a Sudakov suppression of the asymmetry with increasing invariant mass of the γ∗-jet pair. Employing a small-x model input distribution, the asymmetry is found to be strongly suppressed under TMD evolution, but still remains sufficiently large to be measurable in the typical kinematical region accessible at RHIC or LHC at moderate photon virtuality, whereas it is expected to be negligible in Z/W -jet pair production at LHC. We point out the optimal kinematics for RHIC and LHC studies, in order to expedite the first experimental studies of the linearly polarized gluon distribution through this process. We further argue that this is a particularly clean process to test the kt-resummation formalism in the small-x regime.

Twist-2 matching of transverse momentum dependent distributions

We systematically study the large-qT (or small-b) matching of transverse momentum dependent (TMD) distributions to the twist-2 integrated parton distributions. Performing operator product expansion for a generic TMD operator at the next-to-leading order (NLO) we found the complete set of TMD distributions that match twist-2. These are unpolarized, helicity, transversity, pretzelosity and linearly polarized gluon distributions. The NLO matching coefficients for these distributions are presented. The pretzelosity matching coefficient is zero at the presented order, however, it is evident that it is non-zero in the following orders. This result offers a natural explanation of the small value of pretzelosity found in phenomenological fits. We also demonstrate that the cancellation of rapidity divergences by the leading order soft factor imposes the necessary requirement on the Lorentz structure of TMD operators, which is supported only by the TMD distributions of leading dynamical twist. Additionally, this requirement puts restrictions on the γ5-definition in the dimensional regularization.