David Silvermyr
Senior lecturer
Measurement of parity-violating spin asymmetries in W ± production at midrapidity in longitudinally polarized p +p collisions
Author
Summary, in English
We present midrapidity measurements from the PHENIX experiment of large parity-violating single-spin asymmetries of high transverse momentum electrons and positrons from W±/Z decays, produced in longitudinally polarized p+p collisions at center of mass energies of s=500 and 510 GeV. These asymmetries allow direct access to the antiquark polarized parton distribution functions due to the parity-violating nature of the W-boson coupling to quarks and antiquarks. The results presented are based on data collected in 2011, 2012, and 2013 with an integrated luminosity of 240 pb-1, which exceeds previous PHENIX published results by a factor of more than 27. These high Q2 data probe the parton structure of the proton at W mass scale and provide an important addition to our understanding of the antiquark parton helicity distribution functions at an intermediate Bjorken x value of roughly MW/s=0.16.
Department/s
- Particle and nuclear physics
- eSSENCE: The e-Science Collaboration
Publishing year
2016-03-23
Language
English
Publication/Series
Physical Review D
Volume
93
Issue
5
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
American Physical Society
Topic
- Subatomic Physics
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 2470-0010