arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to J. Soffer.
A short analytical review of XV Workshop on High Energy Spin Physics (DSPIN-13) is given. All materials of the workshop, including all presented talks, list of participants and the pdf-file of Proceedings are available on the site http://theor.jinr.ru/~spin/2013/.
A short analytical review of the main results of the DSPIN-11 Workshop (JINR, Dubna, September 20--24, 2011) is given.
We calculate the single transverse spin asymmetry $A_N(t)$, for inclusive neutron production in $pp$ collisions at forward rapidities relative to the polarized proton in the energy range of RHIC. Absorptive corrections to the pion pole generate a relative phase between the spin-flip and non-flip amplitudes, leading to a transverse spin asymmetry which is found to be far too small to explain the magnitude of $A_N$ observed in the PHENIX experiment. A larger contribution, which does not vanish at high energies, comes from the interference of pion and $a_1$-Reggeon exchanges. The unnatural parity of $a_1$ guarantees a substantial phase shift, although the magnitude is strongly suppressed by the smallness of diffractive $πp\to a_1 p$ cross section. We replace the Regge $a_1$ pole by the Regge cut corresponding to the $πρ$ exchange in the $1^+S$ state. The production of such a state, which we treat as an effective pole $a$, forms a narrow peak in the $3π$ invariant mass distribution in diffractive $πp$ interactions . The cross section is large, so one can assume that this state saturates the spectral function of the axial current and we can determine its coupling to nucleons via the PCAC Goldberger-Treiman relation and the second Weinberg sum rule. The numerical results of the parameter-free calculation of $A_N$ are in excellent agreement with the PHENIX data.
In the analysis of experimental data on $p p$ (or $\bar p p$) elastic differential cross section it is customary to define an average forward slope $b$ in the form $\exp{(-b|t|)}$, where $t$ is the momentum transfer. Taking as working example the results of experiments at Tevatron and SPS, we will show with the help of the impact picture approach, that this simplifying assumption hides interesting information on the complex non-flip scattering amplitude, and that the slope $b$ is not a constant. We investigate the variation of this slope parameter, including a model-independent way to extract this information from an accurate measurement of the elastic differential cross section. An extension of our results to the LHC energy domain is presented in view of future experiments.
Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Elastic and Diffractive Scattering (Blois Workshop) - Moving Forward into the LHC Era
We present a summary of a recent workshop held at Duke University on Partonic Transverse Momentum in Hadrons: Quark Spin-Orbit Correlations and Quark-Gluon Interactions. The transverse momentum dependent parton distribution functions (TMDs), parton-to-hadron fragmentation functions, and multi-parton correlation functions, were discussed extensively at the Duke workshop. In this paper, we summarize first the theoretical issues concerning the study of partonic structure of hadrons at a future electron-ion collider (EIC) with emphasis on the TMDs. We then present simulation results on experimental studies of TMDs through measurements of single spin asymmetries (SSA) from semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering (SIDIS) processes with an EIC, and discuss the requirement of the detector for SIDIS measurements. The dynamics of parton correlations in the nucleon is further explored via a study of SSA in D (`D) production at large transverse momenta with the aim of accessing the unexplored tri-gluon correlation functions. The workshop participants identified the SSA measurements in SIDIS as a golden program to study TMDs in both the sea and valence quark regions and to study the role of gluons, with the Sivers asymmetry measurements as examples. Such measurements will lead to major advancement in our understanding of TMDs in the valence quark region, and more importantly also allow for the investigation of TMDs in the sea quark region along with a study of their evolution.
Positivity reduces substantially the allowed domain for spin observables. We briefly recall some methods used to determine these domains and give some typical examples for exclusive and inclusive spin-dependent reactions.
We consider the quark and antiquark transversity distributions inside a polarized proton and we study how they are expected to be related to the corresponding helicity distributions, both in sign and magnitude. Our considerations lead to simple predictions in good agreement with their first determination for light quarks from experimental data. We also give our predictions for the light antiquarks transversity distributions, so far unknown.
We calculate the cross section and single-spin azimuthal asymmetry, A_n(t) for inclusive neutron production in pp collisions at forward rapidities relative to the polarized proton. Absorptive corrections to the pion pole generate a relative phase between the spin-flip and non-flip amplitudes, which leads to an appreciable spin asymmetry. However, the asymmetry observed recently in the PHENIX experiment at RHIC at very small |t|~0.01GeV^2 cannot be explained by this mechanism.
We calculate absorptive corrections to single pion exchange in the production of leading neutrons in pp collisions. Contrary to the usual procedure of convolving the survival probability with the cross section, we apply corrections to the spin amplitudes. The non-flip amplitude turns out to be much more suppressed by absorption than the spin-flip one. We identify the projectile proton Fock state responsible for the absorptive corrections as a color octet-octet 5-quarks configuration. Calculations within two very different models, color-dipole light-cone description, and in hadronic representation, lead to rather similar absorptive corrections. We found a much stronger damping of leading neutrons than in some of previous estimates. Correspondingly, the cross section is considerably smaller than was measured at ISR. However, comparison with recent measurements by the ZEUS collaboration of neutron production in deep-inelastic scattering provides a strong motivation for challenging the normalization of the ISR data. This conjecture is also supported by preliminary data from the NA49 experiment for neutron production in pp collisions at SPS.
Positivity restrains the allowed domains for pairs or triples of spin observables in polarised reactions. Various domain shapes in ${1\over2}+{1\over2}\to{1\over2}+{1\over2}$ reactions are displayed. Some methods to determine these domains are mentioned and a new one based on the anticommutation between two observables is presented.
For the energy of 14 TeV, to be reached at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), we have had for some time accurate predictions for both the real and imaginary parts of the forward proton-proton elastic scattering amplitude. LHC is now scheduled to start operating in two years, and it is timely to discuss some of the important consequences of the measurements of both the total cross-section and the ratio of the real to the imaginary part. We stress the importance of measuring the real part of the proton-proton forward scattering amplitude at LHC, because a deviation from existing theoretical predictions could be a strong sign for new physics.
Our knowledge on the nucleon spin structure has greatly improved over the last twenty years or so, but still many fundamental questions remain unsolved. I will try to review some of the puzzling aspects of the origin of the nucleon spin. I will emphasize the connection with several sum rules and, when using this tool, the relevance of some kinematic regions for testing them in the QCD dynamics framework.
We compare some recent experimental results obtained at DESY, SLAC and Jefferson Lab., with the predictions of the statistical model, we have previously proposed. The result of this comparison is very satisfactory.
We investigate the positivity constraints for the structure functions of both virtual and real photon. From the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality we derive three positivity conditions for the general virtual photon case, which reduce, in the real photon case, to one condition relating the polarized and unpolarized structure functions.
A global next-to-leading order QCD analysis of unpolarized and polarized deep-inelastic scattering data is performed with parton distributions constructed in a statistical physical picture of the nucleon. The chiral properties of QCD lead to strong relations between quarks and antiquarks distributions and the importance of the Pauli exclusion principle is also emphasized. We obtain a good description, in a broad range of $x$ and $Q^2$, of all measured structure functions in terms of very few free parameters. We stress the fact that at RHIC-BNL the ratio of the unpolarized cross sections for the production of $W^+$ and $W^-$ in $pp$ collisions, will directly probe the behavior of the $\bar d(x) / \bar u(x)$ ratio for $x \geq 0.2$, a definite and important test for the statistical model. Finally, we give specific predictions for various helicity asymmetries for the $W^{\pm}, Z$ production in $pp$ collisions at high energies, which will be measured with forthcoming experiments at RHIC-BNL and are sensitive tests of the statistical model for $Δ\bar u(x)$ and $Δ\bar d(x)$.
We present the basic aspects of deep inelastic phenomena in the framework of the QCD parton model. After recalling briefly the standard kinematics, we discuss the physical interpretation of unpolarized and polarized structure functions in terms of parton distributions together with several important sum rules. We also make a rapid survey of the experimental situation together with phenomenological tests, in particular concerning various QCD predictions. In the summary, we try to identify some significant open questions, to clarify where we stand and to see what we expect to learn in the future.
The positivity bound for the transverse asymmetry $A_2$ may be improved and applied for each quark flavor separately. We use it to test the consistency of twist-two approximation for the transverse spin-dependent ($g_T$) and the longitudinal spin-averaged ($F_L$) structure functions. While it is satisfied in the case of $u$ quarks, it might be violated for $d$ quarks in a region of moderate $x$ because of its negative polarization. We attribute this inconsistency to a stronger twist-three contribution, whose existence found by the QCD sum rule method is a long-standing puzzle.