First measurement of the Sivers asymmetry for gluons using SIDIS data

Adolph, C.; Aghasyan, M.; Akhunzyanov, R.; Alexeev, M. G.; Alexeev, G. D.; Amoroso, A.; Andrieux, V.; Anfimov, N. V.; Anosov, V.; Antoshkin, A.; Augsten, K.; Augustyniak, W.; Austregesilo, A.; Azevedo, C. D. R.; BadeÅ‚ek, B.; Balestra, F.; Ball, M.; Barth, J.; Beck, R.; Bedfer, Y.; Bernhard, J.; Bicker, K.; Bielert, E. R.; Birsa, R.; Bodlak, M.; Bordalo, P.; Bradamante, F.; Braun, C.; Bressan, A.; Bã¼chele, M.; Chang, W. -. C.; Chatterjee, C.; Chiosso, M.; Choi, I.; Chung, S. -. U.; Cicuttin, A.; Crespo, M. L.; Curiel, Q.; Dalla Torre, S.; Dasgupta, S. S.; Dasgupta, S.; Denisov, O. Y. u.; Dhara, L.; Donskov, S. V.; Doshita, N.; Dreisbach, C. h.; Duic, V.; Quintans, C.; Dziewiecki, M.; Efremov, A.; Eversheim, P. D.; Eyrich, W.; Ramos, S.; Ferrero, A.; Finger, M.; Finger, M.; Fischer, H.; Franco, C.; du Fresne von Hohenesche, N.; Friedrich, J. M.; Frolov, V.; Fuchey, E.; Gautheron, F.; Gavrichtchouk, O. P.; Gerassimov, S.; Giarra, J.; Giordano, F.; Gnesi, I.; Gorzellik, M.; Grabmã¼ller, S.; Grasso, A.; Grosse Perdekamp, M.; Grube, B.; Grussenmeyer, T.; Guskov, A.; Haas, F.; Hahne, D.; Hamar, G.; von Harrach, D.; Heinsius, F. H.; Heitz, R.; Herrmann, F.; Horikawa, N.; D'Hose, N.; Hsieh, C. -. Y.; Huber, S.; Ishimoto, S.; Ivanov, A.; Ivanshin, Y. u.; Iwata, T.; Jary, V.; Joosten, R.; Jã¶rg, P.; Kabuãÿ, E.; Kerbizi, A.; Ketzer, B.; Khaustov, G. V.; Khokhlov, Y. u. A.; Kisselev, Y. u.; Klein, F.; Klimaszewski, K.; Koivuniemi, J. H.; Kolosov, V. N.; Kondo, K.; Kã¶nigsmann, K.; Konorov, I.; Konstantinov, V. F.; Kotzinian, A. M.; Kouznetsov, O. M.; Krã¤mer, M.; Kremser, P.; Krinner, F.; Kroumchtein, Z. V.; Kulinich, Y.; Kunne, F.; Kurek, K.; Kurjata, R. P.; Lednev, A. A.; Lehmann, A.; Levillain, M.; Levorato, S.; Lian, Y. -. S.; Lichtenstadt, J.; Longo, R.; Maggiora, A.; Magnon, A.; Makins, N.; Makke, N.; Mallot, G. K.; Marianski, B.; Martin, A.; Marzec, J.; Matouå¡ek, J.; Matsuda, H.; Matsuda, T.; Meshcheryakov, G. V.; Meyer, M.; Meyer, W.; Mikhailov, Y. u. V.; Mikhasenko, M.; Mitrofanov, E.; Mitrofanov, N.; Miyachi, Y.; Nagaytsev, A.; Nerling, F.; Neyret, D.; Novã½, J.; Nowak, W. -. D.; Nukazuka, G.; Nunes, A. S.; Olshevsky, A. G.; Orlov, I.; Ostrick, M.; Panzieri, D.; Parsamyan, B.; Paul, S.; Peng, J. -. C.; Pereira, F.; Peå¡ek, M.; Peshekhonov, D. V.; Pierre, N.; Platchkov, S.; Pochodzalla, J.; Polyakov, V. A.; Pretz, J.; Quaresma, M.; Ziembicki, M.; Zink, A.; Regali, C.; Reicherz, G.; Riedl, C.; Roskot, M.; Rogacheva, N. S.; Ryabchikov, D. I.; Rybnikov, A.; Rychter, A.; Salac, R.; Samoylenko, V. D.; Sandacz, A.; Santos, C.; Sarkar, S.; Savin, I. A.; Sawada, T.; Sbrizzai, G.; Schiavon, P.; Schmidt, K.; Schmieden, H.; Schã¶nning, K.; Seder, E.; Selyunin, A.; Silva, L.; Sinha, L.; Sirtl, S.; Slunecka, M.; Smolik, J.; Srnka, A.; Steffen, D.; Stolarski, M.; Subrt, O.; Sulc, M.; Suzuki, H.; Szabelski, A.; Szameitat, T.; Sznajder, P.; Takekawa, S.; Tasevsky, M.; Tessaro, S.; Tessarotto, F.; Thibaud, F.; Thiel, A.; Tosello, F.; Tskhay, V.; Uhl, S.; Vauth, A.; Veloso, J.; Virius, M.; Vondra, J.; Wallner, S.; Weisrock, T.; Wilfert, M.; ter Wolbeek, J.; Zaremba, K.; Zavada, P.; Zavertyaev, M.; Zemlyanichkina, E.; Zhuravlev, N.

doi:10.1016/j.physletb.2017.07.018

The Sivers function describes the correlation between the transverse spin of a nucleon and the transverse motion of its partons. For quarks, it was studied in previous measurements of the azimuthal asymmetry of hadrons produced in semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering of leptons off transversely polarised nucleon targets, and it was found to be non-zero. In this letter the evaluation of the Sivers asymmetry for gluons is presented. The contribution of the photon–gluon fusion subprocess is enhanced by requiring two high transverse-momentum hadrons. The analysis method is based on a Monte Carlo simulation that includes three hard processes: photon–gluon fusion, QCD Compton scattering and the leading-order virtual-photon absorption process. The Sivers asymmetries of the three processes are simultaneously extracted using the LEPTO event generator and a neural network approach. The method is applied to samples of events containing at least two hadrons with large transverse momentum from the COMPASS data taken with a 160 GeV/c muon beam scattered off transversely polarised deuterons and protons. With a significance of about two standard deviations, a negative value is obtained for the gluon Sivers asymmetry. The result of a similar analysis for a Collins-like asymmetry for gluons is consistent with zero.