corner
corner

Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 202001 (2005) [6 pages]

Measurement of Transverse Single-Spin Asymmetries for Midrapidity Production of Neutral Pions and Charged Hadrons in Polarized p+p Collisions at s=200  GeV

Download: PDF (174 kB) Buy this article Export: BibTeX or EndNote (RIS)

S. S. Adler et al. PHENIX Collaboration
Show All Authors/Affiliations

Received 17 July 2005; published 11 November 2005

Transverse single-spin asymmetries to probe the transverse-spin structure of the proton have been measured for neutral pions and nonidentified charged hadrons from polarized proton-proton collisions at midrapidity and s=200  GeV. The data cover a transverse momentum (pT) range 1.0–5.0  GeV/c for neutral pions and 0.5–5.0  GeV/c for charged hadrons, at a Feynman-x value of approximately zero. The asymmetries seen in this previously unexplored kinematic region are consistent with zero within errors of a few percent. In addition, the inclusive charged hadron cross section at midrapidity from 0.5<pT<7.0  GeV/c is presented and compared to next-to-leading order perturbative QCD (pQCD) calculations. Successful description of the unpolarized cross section above ∼2  GeV/c suggests that pQCD is applicable in the interpretation of the asymmetry results in the relevant kinematic range.

© 2005 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.95.202001
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.95.202001
PACS:
14.20.Dh, 13.85.Ni, 13.88.+e, 25.40.Ep