The single transverse spin asymmetry in D meson production at RHIC can provide a clean measure of the gluon Sivers distribution function. At intermediate rapidity, D production is largely dominated by the elementary gg -> c c-bar channel, where there cannot be any transverse spin transfer. Therefore, any transverse single spin asymmetry observed for D's produced in polarized proton-proton interactions can only originate from the Sivers effect in the gluon distribution functions. A sizeable transverse single spin asymmetry measured by PHENIX or STAR experiments would then give direct information on the size of the gluon Sivers distribution function.
@article{arxiv.hep-ph/0412022,
title = {The Gluon Sivers Distribution in D production at RHIC},
author = {M. Anselmino and M. Boglione and E. Leader and U. D'Alesio and F. Murgia},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:hep-ph/0412022},
year = {2017}
}
Comments
4 pages, 2 postscript figures, talk given by M. Boglione at SPIN04, 16th International Spin Physics Symposium, Trieste, Oct. 11-16 2004