6533b870fe1ef96bd12d07c2
RESEARCH PRODUCT
Nuclear gluons at RHIC in a multi-observable approach
Petja PaakkinenPetja PaakkinenJ. G. LajoieJoseph Daniel OsbornHannu PaukkunenHannu PaukkunenIlkka HeleniusIlkka Heleniussubject
Particle physicsNuclear TheoryFOS: Physical scienceshiukkasfysiikka114 Physical sciences01 natural sciences7. Clean energylaw.inventionHigh Energy Physics - ExperimentMomentumHigh Energy Physics - Experiment (hep-ex)High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph)law0103 physical sciencesnuclear gluonsRapidityNuclear Experiment (nucl-ex)010306 general physicsColliderNuclear ExperimentNuclear ExperimentPhysics010308 nuclear & particles physicsHigh Energy Physics::PhenomenologyOrder (ring theory)Drell–Yan processObservableGluonHigh Energy Physics - PhenomenologygluonitProduction (computer science)High Energy Physics::Experimentydinfysiikkadescription
We explore the possibility of measuring nuclear gluon distributions at the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC) with $\sqrt{s}=200 \, {\rm GeV}$ proton-nucleus collisions. In addition to measurements at central rapidity, we consider also observables at forward rapidity, consistent with proposed upgrades to the experimental capabilities of STAR and sPHENIX. The processes we consider consist of Drell-Yan dilepton, dijet, and direct photon-jet production. The Drell-Yan process is found to be an efficient probe of gluons at small momentum fractions. In order to fully utilize the potential of Drell-Yan measurements we demonstrate how the overall normalization uncertainty present in the experimental data can be fixed using other experimental observables. An asset of the RHIC collider is its flexibility to run with different ion beams, and we outline how this ability could be taken advantage of to measure the $A$ dependence of gluon distributions for which the current constraints are scarce.
| year | journal | country | edition | language |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-07-08 |