GPC Paper Review: ANN-ASS pp Elastic Scattering at 200 GeV

 Transverse double spin asymmetries in proton-proton elastic scattering at √s=200 GeV and small momentum transfer

PAs: Igor Alekseev, Wlodek Guryn, Dmitry Svirida, Kin Yip

Target Journal: Physics Letters B

Abstract

Precise measurements of transverse double spin asymmetries ANN and ASS in proton-proton elastic scattering at very small values of four-momentum transfer squared, t, have been performed using the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) polarized proton beams. The measurements were made at the center- of-mass energy  = 200 GeV and in the region of t  0.003 ≤ |t| ≤ 0.035 (GeV/c)2, which was accessed using Roman Pot devices incorporated into the STAR experimental setup. The measured asymmetries are sensitive to the poorly known hadronic double spin-flip amplitudes. While one of these amplitudes, φ4, is suppressed as → 0 due to angular momentum conservation, the second double spin-flip amplitude, φ2, was found to be negative and small, but significantly different from zero. Combined with previous measurements of the single spin asymmetry AN, the results presented here provide significant constraints for the theoretical descriptions of the reaction mechanism of proton-proton elastic scattering at collider energies.