Measurement of longitudinal spin asymmetries for weak boson production in polarized proton-proton collisions at RHIC

The STAR collaboration Adamczyk, L. ; Adkins, J.K. ; Agakishiev, G. ; et al.
Phys.Rev.Lett. 113 (2014) 072301, 2014.
Inspire Record 1292792 DOI 10.17182/hepdata.73441

We report measurements of single- and double- spin asymmetries for $W^{\pm}$ and $Z/\gamma^*$ boson production in longitudinally polarized $p+p$ collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 510$ GeV by the STAR experiment at RHIC. The asymmetries for $W^{\pm}$ were measured as a function of the decay lepton pseudorapidity, which provides a theoretically clean probe of the proton's polarized quark distributions at the scale of the $W$ mass. The results are compared to theoretical predictions, constrained by recent polarized deep inelastic scattering measurements, and show a preference for a sizable, positive up antiquark polarization in the range $0.05<x<0.2$.

6 data tables match query

Longitudinal single-spin asymmetry $A_L$ for W+ production as a function of lepton pseudorapidity.

Longitudinal single-spin asymmetry $A_L$ for W- production as a function of lepton pseudorapidity.

Longitudinal single-spin asymmetry $A_L$ for W+ production as a function of lepton pseudorapidity.

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