Speaker
Jin Huang
Description
We investigated the cross section and the associated spin asymmetries for vector boson (W±/Z0/γ∗) production in polarized proton-proton collisions at tree level within the TMD factorization formalism. Besides the well-known Sivers function f1T , the single transverse asymmetry could also probe the transversal helicity distribution g1T via the parity-violating nature of W/Z0 production. Contrary to Sivers function, which is expect to change sign from SIDIS to DY-type of processes, transversal helicity is universal between SIDIS and DY. To assess the feasibility of experimental measurements, we estimate the spin asymmetries for W±/Z0 boson production in polarized proton-proton collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) by using current knowledge of the relevant TMDs. We find that both the parity-conserving and parity-violating single transverse asymmetries can be sizable, if the suppression effect from TMD evolution is not too strong.
