Measurement of parity-violating spin asymmetries in W-+/- production at midrapidity in longitudinally polarized p plus p collisions

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2016-03-01
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Adare, Andrew
Apadula, Nicole
Campbell, Sarah
Ding, Lei
Dion, Alan
Hill, John
Hotvedt, Nels
Kempel, Todd
Lajoie, John
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Ogilvie, Craig
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Physics and Astronomy
Physics and astronomy are basic natural sciences which attempt to describe and provide an understanding of both our world and our universe. Physics serves as the underpinning of many different disciplines including the other natural sciences and technological areas.
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Physics and Astronomy
Abstract

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 root 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 Q(2) 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 M-W / root s = 0.16.

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This is an article from Physical Review D 93 (2016): 051103, doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.93.051103. Posted with permission.

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Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 UTC 2016
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