Probing nucleon's spin structures with polarized Drell-Yan in the Fermilab SpinQuest experiment
Although the proton was discovered about 100 years ago, its spin structure still remains a mystery. Recent studies suggest that the orbital angular momentum of sea quarks could significantly contribute to the proton's spin. The SeaQuest experiment, which recently completed data collection, probed the unpolarized light quark sea distributions of the proton using the Drell-Yan process. Its successor, the SpinQuest (E1039), will access the $$\bar{u}$$ and $$\bar{d}$$ Sivers functions using polarized NH$$_3$$ and ND$$_3$$ targets. A non-zero Sivers asymmetry, observed in SpinQuest, would be a strong indication of non-zero sea-quark orbital angular momentum. The SpinQuest experiment can also probe the sea quark's transversity distribution, which is relevant for the determination of proton's tensor charge. Recent study suggests that sea-quarks might contribute significantly to deuteron's tensor polarized structure functions. This can be further probed in SpinQuest using tensor polarized ND$$_3$$ target. The current status and future plan of the experiment are presented.
- Research Organization:
- Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States); Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
- Contributing Organization:
- SeaQuest
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-07CH11359
- OSTI ID:
- 1501448
- Report Number(s):
- arXiv:1901.09994; FERMILAB-CONF-18-412-E; 1717476
- Journal Information:
- PoS, Conference: 23rd International Symposium on Spin Physics, Ferrara, Italy, 09/10-09/14/2018
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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