Unpolarized Proton Research Articles

Neutron Beta Decay and Exact Conservation of Charged Weak Hadronic Vector Current in the Standard Model

We investigate the reliability of the hypothesis of exact conservation of the charged weak hadronic vector current in neutron β−-decay with a polarized neutron and an unpolarized proton and electron. We calculate the contributions of the phenomenological term responsible for Exact Conservation of the charged weak hadronic Vector Current (or the ECVC effect) in neutron β−-decay, even for different masses of the neutron and proton, to the correlation coefficients, together with a complete set of contributions of scalar and tensor interactions beyond the Standard Model (SM). We argue that if the total contributions of scalar and tensor interactions beyond the SM fail to reconcile the experimental data on the correlation coefficients with the contributions of the ECVC effect, one may conclude that the charged weak hadronic vector current is not conserved in the hadronic transitions of weak processes with different masses of incoming and outgoing hadrons.

Valence quark PDFs of the proton from two-current correlations in lattice QCD

Following previous works on that topic, we consider Euclidean hadronic matrix elements in position space of two spatially separated local currents on the lattice, in order to extract the x dependence of parton distribution functions (PDFs). The corresponding approach is often referred to by the term . In this work we will consider valence quark PDFs of an unpolarized proton. We adapt the previously established formalism to our choice of operators. The calculation of the two-current matrix elements requires the evaluation of four-point functions. The corresponding calculation is carried out on a nf=2+1 gauge ensemble with lattice spacing a=0.0856 fm and pseudoscalar masses mπ=355 MeV and mK=441 MeV. The four-point functions have been evaluated in a previous project. The lattice data is converted to the MS¯ scheme at a scale μ=2 GeV and improved with respect to lattice artifacts. We use a common model as fit ansatz for the lattice data in order to extract the PDFs. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Towards unpolarized GPDs from pseudo-distributions

We present an exploration of the unpolarized isovector proton generalized parton distributions (GPDs) Hu−d(x, ξ, t) and Eu−d(x, ξ, t) in the pseudo-distribution formalism using distillation. Taking advantage of the large kinematic coverage made possible by this approach, we present results on the moments of GPDs up to the order x3 — including their skewness dependence — at a pion mass mπ = 358 MeV and a lattice spacing a = 0.094 fm.

Azimuthal anisotropies at high-pT from transverse momentum dependent (TMD) parton distribution and fragmentation functions

Unpolarized protons can generate transversely polarized quarks or linearly polarized gluons through a distribution known as the Boer-Mulders’ function. The fragmentation of similarly polarized partons to unpolarized hadrons is called the Collins’ function. Both of these functions include correlations between the spin or polarization and the relative transverse momentum of the incoming parton or outgoing hadron, with respect to the parent particle. We explore the effect of including these and other TMDs on the production of high-pT (unpolarized) hadron production from (unpolarized) proton-proton scattering. The resulting initial state anisotropies, modulated with similar final state effects, may account for the observed azimuthal anisotropy of the produced high transverse momentum hadrons, without modification to the angle integrated spectra (RAA). This may be an explanation for the existence of a v2 in high-pT hadron spectra in p-A collisions without any observable nuclear modification of the spectra.

Global extraction of proton and pion Transverse Momentum Distributions

We present the most recent global analysis of unpolarized proton Transverse Momentum Dependent Parton Distribution Functions (TMD PDFs) and Fragmentation Functions (TMD FFs) derived from a diverse set of experimental datasets, including Semi-Inclusive Deep-Inelastic Scattering, Drell-Yan, and Z-boson production. Additionally, we present an extraction of the unpolarized pion TMD PDFs from all available data of unpolarized pion induced Drell–Yan processes. Both fits are performed at next-to-next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic (N3LL) accuracy.

First CLAS12 Measurement of Deeply Virtual Compton Scattering Beam-Spin Asymmetries in the Extended Valence Region.

Deeply virtual Compton scattering (DVCS) allows one to probe generalized parton distributions describing the 3D structure of the nucleon. We report the first measurement of the DVCS beam-spin asymmetry using the CLAS12 spectrometer with a 10.2 and 10.6GeV electron beam scattering from unpolarized protons. The results greatly extend the Q^{2} and Bjorken-x phase space beyond the existing data in the valence region and provide 1600 new data points measured with unprecedented statistical uncertainty, setting new, tight constraints for future phenomenological studies.

Unpolarized proton PDF at NNLO from lattice QCD with physical quark masses

Unpolarized proton PDF at NNLO from lattice QCD with physical quark masses

TMD evolution study of the cos2ϕ azimuthal asymmetry in unpolarized J/ψ production at EIC

Semi-inclusive $J/\psi$ production in electron-proton collisions is a promising process to study gluon transverse momentum distributions (TMDs) at the future Electron-Ion Collider. In this article, we improve on previous studies of the $\cos 2 \phi$ azimuthal asymmetry that arises from the linear polarization of gluons inside unpolarized protons by including TMD evolution. We find that in the TMD regime the asymmetry grows monotonically with increasing transverse momentum of the outgoing $J/\psi$, in contrast to tree level calculations with Gaussian TMDs. Our predictions for the asymmetry at EIC can become very large at larger $x$, $Q$, and transverse momenta, even larger than the positivity bound. This problem stems from the very small $b$ region and implies a range of validity of TMD factorization that is more restricted than usually expected. We also include an estimate of the nonperturbative uncertainty from the large $b$ region and we conclude that it is smaller than the largest source of uncertainty, which stems from the choice of Color Octet Long-Distance Matrix Elements.

Jet charge: A new tool to probe the anomalous [formula omitted] couplings at the EIC

We propose to probe the Zbb¯ interactions at the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) by utilizing the average jet charge weighted single-spin asymmetry AebQ, which is induced by different cross sections of a left-handed and right-handed electron beam scattering off an unpolarized proton beam in the neutral current deeply-inelastic scattering processes with one observed b-tagged jet. This novel observable at the EIC is sensitive to the axial-vector component of the Zbb¯ coupling, providing similar information as the gg→Zh cross section measurement at the high-luminosity Large Hadron Collider, and is complementary to the single-spin asymmetry measurement at the EIC which is sensitive to the vector component of the Zbb¯ coupling. We show that the apparent degeneracy of the allowed Zbb¯ coupling in its vector and axial-vector components, implied by the Large Electron-Positron Collider (LEP) and the Stanford Linear Collider (SLC) precision electroweak data, can be broken by the AebQ measurement at the EIC. With a large enough integrated luminosity collected at the EIC, the measurement of AebQ could also resolve the long-standing discrepancy between bottom quark forward-backward asymmetry AFBb at the LEP and the Standard Model prediction, with a strong dependence on the b-tagging efficiency.

Ultraforward production of a charmed hadron plus a Higgs boson in unpolarized proton collisions

We investigate the inclusive emission in unpolarized proton collisions of a charm-flavored hadron in association with a Higgs boson, featuring large transverse momenta and produced with a large rapidity distance. Taking advantage of a narrow timing coincidence between the ATLAS detector and the future FPF ones, we study the behavior of cross sections and azimuthal correlations for ultraforward rapidities of the detected hadron. We provide evidence that the hybrid high-energy and collinear factorization, encoding the BFKL resummation of large energy logarithms and supplemented by collinear densities and fragmentation functions, offers a fair description of this process and comes out as an important tool to deepen our understanding of strong interactions in ultraforward production regimes.

Beam-recoil transferred polarization in K+Y electroproduction in the nucleon resonance region with CLAS12

Beam-recoil transferred polarizations for the exclusive electroproduction of K+Λ and K+Σ0 final states from an unpolarized proton target have been measured using the CLAS12 spectrometer at Jefferson Laboratory. The measurements at beam energies of 6.535 and 7.546 GeV span the range of four-momentum transfer Q2 from 0.3 to 4.5 GeV2 and invariant energy W from 1.6 to 2.4 GeV, while covering the full center-of-mass angular range of the K+. These new data extend the existing hyperon polarization data from CLAS in a similar kinematic range but from a significantly larger dataset. They represent an important addition to the world data, allowing for better exploration of the reaction mechanism in strangeness production processes, for further understanding of the spectrum and structure of excited nucleon states, and for improved insight into the strong interaction in the regime of nonperturbative dynamics.15 MoreReceived 7 February 2022Accepted 19 May 2022DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.105.065201©2022 American Physical SocietyPhysics Subject Headings (PhySH)Research AreasElectromagnetic interactionsPhysical SystemsHyperonsPropertiesPolarizationNuclear Physics

J/ψ polarization in semi-inclusive DIS at low and high transverse momentum

We study the polar and azimuthal decay angular distributions of J/ψ mesons produced in semi-inclusive, deep-inelastic electron-proton scattering. For the description of the quarkonium formation mechanism, we adopt the framework of nonrelativistic QCD, with the inclusion of the intermediate color-octet channels that are suppressed at most by a factor v4 in the velocity parameter v relative to the leading color-singlet channel. We put forward factorized expressions for the helicity structure functions in terms of transverse momentum dependent gluon distributions and shape functions, which are valid when the J/ψ transverse momentum is small with respect to the hard scale of the process. By requiring that such expressions correctly match with the collinear factorization results at high transverse momentum, we determine the perturbative tails of the shape functions and find them to be independent of the J/ψ polarization. In particular, we focus on the cos 2ϕ azimuthal decay asymmetry, which originates from the distribution of linearly polarized gluons inside an unpolarized proton. We therefore suggest a novel experiment for the extraction of this so-far unknown parton density that could be performed, in principle, at the future Electron-Ion Collider.

Theory of deeply virtual Compton scattering off the unpolarized proton

Using the helicity amplitudes formalism, we study deeply virtual exclusive electron photoproduction off an unpolarized nucleon target, $ep\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{e}^{\ensuremath{'}}{p}^{\ensuremath{'}}\ensuremath{\gamma}$, through a range of kinematics both in the fixed target setting with initial electron energies of 6, 11, and 24 GeV and for an electron ion collider. We reformulate the cross section bringing to the forefront the defining features of the $ep\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{e}^{\ensuremath{'}}{p}^{\ensuremath{'}}\ensuremath{\gamma}$ process, where the observables are expressed as bilinear products of the independent helicity amplitudes which completely describe it in terms of the electric, magnetic, and axial currents of the nucleon. These contributions are checked against the Fourier harmonics-based formalism which has provided so far the underlying mathematical framework to study deeply virtual Compton scattering (DVCS) and related experiments. Using theoretical model calculations of the twist-two generalized parton distributions, $H$, $E$, $\stackrel{\texttildelow{}}{H}$, and $\stackrel{\texttildelow{}}{E}$, we uncover large discrepancies between the harmonic series and our proposed framework. Most importantly, these numerical differences appear in the intermediate ${Q}^{2}$ range which represents a sweet spot for extracting generalized parton distributions from data. We provide a framework that is ideal, on one side, to study and compare the different conventions that can be used to describe the leading order contribution to DVCS in QCD, while on the other it facilitates a quantitative extraction of physically meaningful information from experiment through traceable and controllable approximations in the intermediate ${Q}^{2}$ region.

Possible Studies at the First Stage of the NICA Collider Operation with Polarized and Unpolarized Proton and Deuteron Beams

This paper contains suggestions for experiments with usage of the Spin Physics Detector (SPD) at the first stage of the SPD NICA Programme developing at JINR. Double polarized pp-, dd- and pd- collisions at c.m.s. NN energies of 3.4-10 GeV, which will be accessible at the initial stage of experiments, allow one to study spin dependence of the NN interaction, search for multiquark states at double strangeness, charm and beauty thresholds, study the short-range structure of the deuteron. Double polarized pd scattering offer a possibility to test the Standard Model through the search for T-invariance violation.

Deeply virtual Compton scattering using a positron beam in Hall-C at Jefferson Lab

We propose to use the High Momentum Spectrometer of Hall C combined with the Neutral Particle Spectrometer (NPS) to perform high precision measurements of the Deeply Virtual Compton Scattering (DVCS) cross section using a beam of positrons. The combination of measurements with oppositely charged incident beams is the only unambiguous way to disentangle the contribution of the DVCS\(^2\) term in the photon electroproduction cross section from its interference with the Bethe-Heitler amplitude. This provides a stronger way to constrain the Generalized Parton Distributions of the nucleon. A wide range of kinematics accessible with an 11 GeV beam off an unpolarized proton target will be covered. The \(Q^2-\)dependence of each contribution will be measured independently.

Erratum: Tests of the standard model in neutron beta decay with polarized electrons and unpolarized neutrons and protons [Phys. Rev. D 99 , 053004 (2019)

Erratum: Tests of the standard model in neutron beta decay with polarized electrons and unpolarized neutrons and protons [Phys. Rev. D <b>99</b> , 053004 (2019)

Double parton distributions in the nucleon from lattice QCD

We evaluate nucleon four-point functions in the framework of lattice QCD in order to extract the first Mellin moment of double parton distributions (DPDs) in the unpolarized proton. In this first study, we employ an nf = 2+1 ensemble with pseudoscalar masses of mπ = 355 MeV and mK = 441 MeV. The results are converted to the scale μ = 2 GeV. Our calculation includes all Wick contractions, and for almost all of them a good statistical signal is obtained. We analyze the dependence of the DPD Mellin moments on the quark flavor and the quark polarization. Furthermore, the validity of frequently used factorization assumptions is investigated.

Deep learning analysis of deeply virtual exclusive photoproduction

We present a Machine Learning based approach to the cross section and asymmetries for deeply virtual Compton scattering from an unpolarized proton target using both an unpolarized and polarized electron beam. Machine learning methods are needed to study and eventually interpret the outcome of deeply virtual exclusive experiments since these reactions are characterized by a complex final state with a larger number of kinematic variables and observables, exponentially increasing the difficulty of quantitative analyses. Our deep neural network (FemtoNet) uncovers emergent features in the data and learns an accurate approximation of the cross section that outperforms standard baselines. FemtoNet reveals that the predictions in the unpolarized case systematically show a smaller relative median error than the polarized that can be ascribed to the presence of the Bethe Heitler process. It also suggests that the $t$ dependence can be more easily extrapolated than for the other variables, namely the skewness, $\xi$ and four-momentum transfer, $Q^2$. Our approach is fully scalable and will be capable of handling larger data sets as they are released from future experiments.

Observation of Beam Spin Asymmetries in the Process ep→e′π+π−X with CLAS12

The observation of beam spin asymmetries in two-pion production in semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering off an unpolarized proton target is reported. The data presented here were taken in the fall of 2018 with the CLAS12 spectrometer using a 10.6GeV longitudinally spin-polarized electron beam delivered by CEBAF at JLab. The measured asymmetries provide the first opportunity to extract the parton distribution function e(x), which provides information about the interaction between gluons and quarks, in a collinear framework that offers cleaner access than previous measurements. The asymmetries also constitute the first ever signal sensitive to the helicity-dependent two-pion fragmentation function G_{1}^{⊥}. A clear sign change is observed around the ρ mass that appears in model calculations and is indicative of the dependence of the produced pions on the helicity of the fragmenting quark.

Corrections of order [formula omitted], caused by weak magnetism and proton recoil, to the neutron lifetime and correlation coefficients of the neutron beta decay

We calculate the contributions of weak magnetism and proton recoil of order O(Ee2∕mN2)∼10−5, i.e. to next-to-next-to-leading order in the large nucleon mass expansion, to the neutron lifetime and correlation coefficients of the neutron beta decay, where Ee and mN are the electron energy and the nucleon mass, respectively. We analyze the electron-energy and angular distribution for the neutron beta decay with a polarized neutron, a polarized electron and an unpolarized proton. Together with Wilkinson’s corrections (Wilkinson, 1982; and radiative corrections of order O(αEe∕mN)∼10−5 Ivanov et al., 2019), calculated as next-to-leading order corrections in the large nucleon mass mN expansion to Sirlin’s corrections of order O(α∕π) (Sirlin, 1967), the corrections of order O(Ee2∕mN2)∼10−5 provide an improved level of precision of the theoretical background of the neutron beta decay, calculated in the Standard Model, for experimental searches of contributions of interactions beyond the Standard Model.