Achievements and open issues in the determination of polarized parton distribution functions
Abstract
I review the current status of the determination of helicity-dependent, or polarized, parton distribution functions from a comprehensive analysis of experimental data in perturbative quantum chromodynamics. I illustrate the latest achievements driven by new measurements in polarized proton-proton collisions at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, namely the first evidence of a sizable polarized light sea quark asymmetry and of a positive polarized gluon distribution in the proton. I discuss which are the open issues in the determination of polarized distributions, and how these may be addressed in the future by ongoing, planned and proposed experimental programs.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1503.03518,
title = {Achievements and open issues in the determination of polarized parton distribution functions},
author = {Emanuele R. Nocera},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1503.03518},
year = {2016}
}
Comments
8 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the 21st International Symposium on Spin Physics (SPIN2014)