Nuclear gluons at RHIC in a multiobservable approach

Journal Article · 08 July 2019 · Physical Review. D.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.100.014004 · OSTI ID:1532432

Helenius, Ilkka; Lajoie, John; Osborn, Joseph D.; Paakkinen, Petja; Paukkunen, Hannu

We explore the possibility of measuring nuclear gluon distributions at the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC) with $$\sqrt{s}$$ = 200 GeV proton-nucleus collisions. In addition to measurements at central rapidity, we consider also observables at forward rapidity, consistent with proposed upgrades to the experimental capabilities of STAR and sPHENIX. The processes we consider consist of Drell-Yan dilepton, dijet, and direct photon-jet production. The Drell-Yan process is found to be an efficient probe of gluons at small momentum fractions. In order to fully utilize the potential of Drell-Yan measurements we demonstrate how the overall normalization uncertainty present in the experimental data can be fixed using other experimental observables. An asset of the RHIC collider is its flexibility to run with different ion beams, and we outline how this ability could be taken advantage of to measure the A dependence of gluon distributions for which the current constraints are scarce.

• Sponsoring Organization: Magnus Ehrnrooth Foundation; Finnish IT Center for Science (CSC); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Nuclear Physics (NP)
• Grant/Contract Number: SC0004907; SC0013393
• OSTI ID: 1532432
• Journal Information: Physical Review. D., Journal Name: Physical Review. D. Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 100; ISSN PRVDAQ; ISSN 2470-0010
• Publisher: American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English