Inclusive cross sections, charge ratio and double-helicity asymmetries for $\pi^+$ and $\pi^-$ production in $p$$+$$p$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}$=200 GeV

The PHENIX collaboration Adare, A. ; Aidala, C. ; Ajitanand, N.N. ; et al.
Phys.Rev.D 91 (2015) 032001, 2015.
Inspire Record 1315330 DOI 10.17182/hepdata.71403

We present the midrapidity charged pion invariant cross sections and the ratio of $\pi^-$-to-$\pi^+$ production ($5<p_T<13$ GeV/$c$), together with the double-helicity asymmetries ($5<p_T<12$ GeV/$c$) in polarized $p$$+$$p$ collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 200$ GeV. The cross section measurements are consistent with perturbative calculations in quantum chromodynamics within large uncertainties in the calculation due to the choice of factorization, renormalization, and fragmentation scales. However, the theoretical calculation of the ratio of $\pi^-$-to-$\pi^+$ production when considering these scale uncertainties overestimates the measured value, suggesting further investigation of the uncertainties on the charge-separated pion fragmentation functions is needed. Due to cancellations of uncertainties in the charge ratio, direct inclusion of these ratio data in future parameterizations should improve constraints on the flavor dependence of quark fragmentation functions to pions. By measuring charge-separated pion asymmetries, one can gain sensitivity to the sign of $\Delta G$ through the opposite sign of the up and down quark helicity distributions in conjunction with preferential fragmentation of positive pions from up quarks and negative pions from down quarks. The double-helicity asymmetries presented are sensitive to the gluon helicity distribution over an $x$ range of $\sim$0.03--0.16.

3 data tables

Invariant cross section for $\pi^+$ and $\pi^-$ hadrons, as well as the statistical and systematic uncertainties. In addition, there is an absolute scale uncertainty of 9.6$\%$.

Double-helicity asymmetries and statistical uncertainties for $\pi^+$ and $\pi^-$ hadrons. The primary systematic uncertainties, which are fully correlated between points, are $1.4\times10^{-3}$ from relative luminosity and a $^{+7.0\%}_{-7.7\%}$ scaling uncertainty from beam polarization.

Ratio of charged pion cross section, as shown in Fig.6.


A Measurement of single and double prompt photon production at the CERN anti-p p collider

The UA2 collaboration Alitti, J. ; Ambrosini, G. ; Ansari, R. ; et al.
Phys.Lett.B 288 (1992) 386-394, 1992.
Inspire Record 336186 DOI 10.17182/hepdata.29113

A measurement of the cross-sections for single and double prompt photon production in p p interactions at s = 630 GeV is presented. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 13.2 pb −1 . The results are in good agreement with the predictions of perturbative QCD. The signal from double prompt photon production has a statistical significance of 4.3 standard deviations.

2 data tables

There is an overall systematic error of 9 pct not included in the table.

Errors quoted include statistical and all PT dependent systematic uncertainties. There is in addition a 6.8 pct overall normalization uncertainty.