Paper Proposal: Run17 pp510 Collins Analysis

Title: Energy Independence of the Collins Asymmetry in $pp$ Collisions

PAs: Carl Gagliardi, Ting Lin, Qinghua Xu, Yike Xu and Yixin Zhang

Target Journal: Phys. Rev. Lett. 

Abstract:

The STAR experiment reports high statistics measurements of the Collins asymmetries for $\pi^{\pm}$ within jets from transversely polarized ${pp}$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 510 GeV. With energy-scaled jet $x_T$= $2p_T/\sqrt s$, a remarkable consistency is observed for Collins asymmetries of $\pi^{\pm}$ between 200 GeV and 510 GeV. This indicates that the Collins asymmetries are nearly energy independent, with at most a very weak scale dependence, in $pp$ collisions. These results extend to high momentum scales ($Q^2$ up to 3400 GeV$^2$) and enable unique tests of evolution and universality in the transverse-momentum-dependent formalism, thus providing important constraints for the Collins fragmentation functions.


Paper draft (Nov. 10):
    
Energy Independence of the Collins Asymmetry in $pp$ Collisions

Analysis Note:
    
2017_pp510_Collins_Analysis

Presentations:
At Spin PWG:

    May 31, 2023
At STAR Collaboration Meeting:

At SPIN2023:

    SPIN 2023 Workshop Proceeding

Proposed Figures:

    Figure 1:The representation of the reaction plane along with the definitions of the azimuthal angles $\phi_S$ and $\phi_H$
             

    Figure 2: Collins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\sin(\phi_S - \phi_H)}$, as a function of jet $x_T$ ($\equiv \frac{2p_T}{\sqrt{s}}$) for $\pi^+/\pi^-$ in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 510$ GeV (solid points), compared with previous results at $\sqrt{s} = 200$ GeV (open points). Vertical bars show the statistical uncertainties; boxes show the systematic uncertainties in $x_T$ and $A_{UT}$

    Figure3:Difference of Collins asymmetries at 510 GeV and 200 GeV, as a function of jet $x_T$ ($\equiv \frac{2p_T}{\sqrt{s}}$) for $\pi^+/\pi^-$ in $pp$ collisions. The error bars encompass the uncertainties from both the 510 GeV and 200 GeV results, as well as the uncertainties introduced by fitting the 200 GeV data


   
Figure4: 
Collins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\sin(\phi_S - \phi_H)}$, as a function of the $\pi^{\pm}$ momentum transverse to the jet axis, $j_T$, in four longitudinal momentum fraction $z$ bins. The solid points show the results from this analysis of $\sqrt{s} = 510$ GeV $pp$ collisions with an average jet $\langle p_T \rangle = 32.3$ GeV/c, while the open points show the results from $\sqrt{s} = 200$ GeV $pp$ collisions with an average jet $\langle p_T \rangle = 13.3$ GeV/c. Vertical bars show the statistical uncertainties and boxes show the systematic uncertainties in $j_T$ and $A_{UT}$

conclusion:

  • New precision results Collins asymmetries for π^±  within jets in pp collisions at s   = 510 GeV, ~13 times more statistics to previous measurement. 
  • The Collins results, in good consistency with 200 GeV data vs. xT, no energy dependence observed, which provide important constraints on the scale evaluation, and testing of universality for Collins asymmetries.
  • The theoretical curves exhibit a comparable trend to the experimental measurements, but undershoot the observed asymmetries.