We report the transverse single-spin asymmetries of J/ψ production at forward and backward rapidity, 1.2<|y|<2.2, as a function of J/ψ transverse momentum (pT) and Feynman-x (xF). The data analyzed ...were recorded by the PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider in 2015 from p+p, p+Al, and p+Au collisions with transversely polarized proton beams at sNN=200 GeV. At this collision energy, single-spin asymmetries for heavy-flavor particle production of p+p collisions provide access to the spin-dependent gluon distribution and higher-twist correlation functions inside the nucleon, such as the gluon Qiu-Sterman and trigluon correlation functions. Proton+nucleus collisions offer an excellent opportunity to study nuclear effects on the correlation functions. The data indicate a positive asymmetry at the two-standard-deviation level in the p+p data for 2 GeV/c<pT<10 GeV/c at backward rapidity and negative asymmetries at the two-standard-deviation level in the p+Au data for pT<2 GeV/c at both forward and backward rapidity, while in p+Al collisions the asymmetries are consistent with zero within the range of experimental uncertainties.
We have measured the cross section and single-spin asymmetries from forward W±→μ±ν production in longitudinally polarized p+p collisions at s=510 GeV using the PHENIX detector at the Relativistic ...Heavy Ion Collider. The cross sections are consistent with previous measurements at this collision energy, while the most forward and backward longitudinal single spin asymmetries provide new insights into the sea quark helicities in the proton. The charge of the W bosons provides a natural flavor separation of the participating partons.
We present measurements of the transverse-momentum dependence of elliptic flow v2 for identified pions and (anti)protons at midrapidity (|η|<0.35), in 0%-5% central p+Au and He3+Au collisions at ...sNN=200 GeV. When taken together with previously published measurements in d+Au collisions at sNN=200 GeV, the results cover a broad range of small-collision-system multiplicities and intrinsic initial geometries. We observe a clear mass-dependent splitting of v2(pT) in d+Au and He3+Au collisions, just as in large nucleus-nucleus (A+A) collisions, and a smaller splitting in p+Au collisions. Both hydrodynamic and transport model calculations successfully describe the data at low pT (<1.5GeV/c), but fail to describe various features at higher pT. In all systems, the v2 values follow an approximate quark-number scaling as a function of the hadron transverse kinetic energy per constituent quark (KET/nq), which was also seen previously in A+A collisions.
The PHENIX experiment has studied nuclear effects in p+Al and p+Au collisions at sNN=200GeV on charged hadron production at forward rapidity (1.4<η<2.4, p-going direction) and backward rapidity ...(-2.2<η<-1.2, A-going direction). Such effects are quantified by measuring nuclear modification factors as a function of transverse momentum and pseudorapidity in various collision multiplicity selections. In central p+Al and p+Au collisions, a suppression (enhancement) is observed at forward (backward) rapidity compared to the binary scaled yields in p+p collisions. The magnitude of enhancement at backward rapidity is larger in p+Au collisions than in p+Al collisions, which have a smaller number of participating nucleons. However, the results at forward rapidity show a similar suppression within uncertainties. The results in the integrated centrality are compared with calculations using nuclear parton distribution functions, which show a reasonable agreement at the forward rapidity but fail to describe the backward rapidity enhancement.
Reported here are transverse single-spin asymmetries (AN) in the production of charged hadrons as a function of transverse momentum (pT) and Feynman-x (xF) in polarized p↑ + p, p↑ + Al, and p↑ + Au ...collisions at $\sqrt{^SNN}$ = 200 GeV. The measurements have been performed at forward and backward rapidity (1.4 < |η| < 2.4) over the range of 1.5 GeV /c < pT < 7.0 GeV /c and 0.04 < |xF| < 0.2. A nonzero asymmetry is observed for positively charged hadrons at forward rapidity (xF > 0) in p↑ + p collisions, whereas the p↑ + Al and p↑ + Au results show smaller asymmetries. This finding provides new opportunities to investigate the origin of transverse single-spin asymmetries and a tool to study nuclear effects in p + A collisions.
Polarized proton-proton collisions provide leading-order access to gluons, presenting an opportunity to constrain gluon spin-momentum correlations within transversely polarized protons and enhance ...our understanding of the three-dimensional structure of the proton. Midrapidity open-heavy-flavor production at $\sqrt{s}$ = 200 GeV is dominated by gluon-gluon fusion, providing heightened sensitivity to gluon dynamics relative to other production channels. Transverse single-spin asymmetries of positrons and electrons from heavy-flavor hadron decays are measured at midrapidity using the PHENIX detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. These charge-separated measurements are sensitive to gluon correlators that can in principle be related to gluon orbital angular momentum via model calculations. Explicit constraints on gluon correlators are extracted for two separate models, one of which had not been constrained previously.
Presented are the first measurements of the transverse single-spin asymmetries (AN) for neutral pions and eta mesons in p+Au and p+Al collisions at sNN=200 GeV in the pseudorapidity range |η|
We report on the nuclear dependence of transverse single-spin asymmetries (TSSAs) in the production of positively charged hadrons in polarized p↑+p, p↑+Al, and p↑+Au collisions at sNN=200 GeV. The ...measurements have been performed at forward rapidity (1.4<η<2.4) over the range of transverse momentum (1.8<pT<7.0 GeV/c) and Feynman x (0.1<xF<0.2). We observed positive asymmetries for positively charged hadrons in p↑+p collisions, and significantly reduced asymmetries in p↑+A collisions. These results reveal a nuclear dependence of TSSAs for charged-hadron production in a regime where perturbative techniques are applicable. These results provide new opportunities to use p↑+A collisions as a tool to investigate the rich phenomena behind TSSAs in hadronic collisions and to use TSSAs as a new handle in studying small-system collisions.
The cross section and transverse single-spin asymmetries of μ− and μ+ from open heavy-flavor decays in polarized p+p collisions at s=200 GeV were measured by the PHENIX experiment during 2012 at the ...Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. Because heavy-flavor production is dominated by gluon-gluon interactions at s=200 GeV, these measurements offer a unique opportunity to obtain information on the trigluon correlation functions. The measurements are performed at forward and backward rapidity (1.4<|y|<2.0) over the transverse momentum range of 1.25<pT<7 GeV/c for the cross section and 1.25<pT<5 GeV/c for the asymmetry measurements. The obtained cross section is compared to a fixed-order-plus-next-to-leading-log perturbative-quantum-chromodynamics calculation. The asymmetry results are consistent with zero within uncertainties, and a model calculation based on twist-3 three-gluon correlations agrees with the data.
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