Accessing tri-gluon correlations in the nucleon via the singlespin asymmetry in open charm production

Journal Article · Fri Nov 14 04:00:00 EST 2008 · Physical Review D

OSTI ID:945937

Kang, Zhong-Bo; Qiu, Jian-Wei; Vogelsang, Werner; Yuan, Feng

We calculate the single transverse-spin asymmetry for open charm production in pp collisions within the QCD collinear factorization approach. We include contributions from both twist-three quark-gluon and tri-gluon correlation functions. We find that the quark-gluon correlation functions alone generate only a very small asymmetry for open charm production in the kinematic region of current interest at RHIC, so that the observation of any significant single-spin asymmetry would be a clear indication of the presence of tri-gluon correlations inside a polarized proton. We furthermore demonstrate that the tri-gluon contribution could be very different for the production of D and \bar{D} mesons. These features make the single spin asymmetry in open charm production in polarized pp collisions at RHIC an excellent probe of tri-gluon correlation functions.

• Research Organization: Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: Nuclear Science Division
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-05CH11231
• OSTI ID: 945937
• Report Number(s): LBNL-1339E
• Journal Information: Physical Review D, Journal Name: Physical Review D
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
ASYMMETRY
CORRELATION FUNCTIONS
FACTORIZATION
MESONS
NUCLEONS
PROBES
PRODUCTION
QUANTUM CHROMODYNAMICS
SPIN