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Dihadron Transverse-Spin Asymmetries in Muon-Deuteron Deep-Inelastic Scattering

G. D. Alexeev28, M. G. Alexeev19,20, C. Alice19,20, A. Amoroso19,20, V. Andrieux33, V. Anosov28, S. Asatryan1, K. Augsten4, W. Augustyniak23 et al. (COMPASS Collaboration)

W. Augustyniak23, C. D. R. Azevedo26, B. Badelek25, R. Beck9, J. Beckers13, Y. Bedfer6, V. Benesova5, J. Bernhard30, F. Bradamante18, A. Bressan17,18,a, W.-C. Chang31, C. Chatterjee18, M. Chiosso19,20, S.-U. Chung13,b, A. Cicuttin18,16, M. L. Crespo18,16, D. D’Ago17,18, S. Dalla Torre18, S. S. Dasgupta14, S. Dasgupta18,c, M. Dehpour5, F. Delcarro19,20, I. Denisenko28, O. Yu. Denisov20, S. V. Donskov1,29, N. Doshita22, Ch. Dreisbach13, W. Dünnweberd, R. R. Dusaev1,29, D. Ecker13, P. Faccioli27, M. Faesslerd, M. Finger5,e, M. Finger, Jr.5, H. Fischer11, K. J. Flöthner9, W. Florian18,16, J. M. Friedrich13, V. Frolov28, L. G. Garcia Ordòñez18,16, O. P. Gavrichtchouk28, S. Gerassimov29,13, J. Giarra12, D. Giordano19,20,f, A. Grasso19,20, A. Gridin28, M. Grosse Perdekamp33, B. Grube13, M. Grüner9, A. Guskov28, P. Haas13, D. von Harrach12, M. Hoffmann9, A. Hoghmrtsyan1, N. d’Hose6, C.-Y. Hsieh31, S. Ishimoto22,g, A. Ivanov28, T. Iwata22, V. Jary4, E. Jelinkova4, R. Joosten9, E. Kabuß12, F. Kaspar13, A. Kerbizi17,18,h, B. Ketzer9, G. V. Khaustov29, T. Klasek5, J. H. Koivuniemi8,33, V. N. Kolosov1,29, K. Kondo Horikawa22, I. Konorov29,13, A. Yu. Korzenev28, A. M. Kotzinian1, O. M. Kouznetsov28, A. Koval23, F. Kunne6, K. Kurek23, R. P. Kurjata24, A. Kveton5, K. Lavickova4, S. Levorato18,i, Y.-S. Lian31, J. Lichtenstadt15, P.-J. Lin32, R. Longo33,j, V. E. Lyubovitskij29, A. Maggiora20, N. Makke18, G. K. Mallot30,11, A. Maltsev28, A. Martin17,18,k, H. Marukyan1, J. Marzec24, J. Matoušek5, T. Matsuda21, C. Menezes Pires27, F. Metzger9, W. Meyer8,l, M. Mikhasenko7, E. Mitrofanov28, D. Miura22, Y. Miyachi22, R. Molina18,16, A. Movsisian1, A. Moretti17,18, A. Nagaytsev28, D. Neyret6, M. Niemiec25, J. Nový4, W.-D. Nowak12,m, G. Nukazuka22, A. G. Olshevsky28, M. Ostrick12,n, D. Panzieri20, B. Parsamyan1,20,30,o, S. Paul13, H. Pekeler9, J.-C. Peng33, M. Pešek5, D. V. Peshekhonov28, M. Pešková5, S. Platchkov6, J. Pochodzalla12, V. A. Polyakov28,29, P. Pucci5, C. Quintans27,23, G. Reicherz8, C. Riedl33, D. I. Ryabchikov29,13, A. Rychter24, A. Rymbekova28, V. D. Samoylenko1,29, A. Sandacz23, S. Sarkar14,e, I. A. Savin28, G. Sbrizzai18, H. Schmieden10, A. Selyunin28, S. Seriubin28, L. Sinha14, D. Spülbeck9, A. Srnka2, M. Stolarski23,p, M. Sulc3,q, H. Suzuki22, S. Tessaro18, F. Tessarotto18, A. Thiel9, F. Tosello20,r, A. Townsend33, V. Tskhay29, B. Valinoti18,16, B. M. Veit12, J. F. C. A. Veloso26, A. Vijayakumar33, M. Virius4, M. Wagner9, S. Wallner13, K. Zaremba24, M. Zavertyaev29, M. Zemko4, E. Zemlyanichkina28, and M. Ziembicki24 (COMPASS Collaboration)

  • 1A.I. Alikhanyan National Science Laboratory, 2 Alikhanyan Brothers Street, 0036, Yerevan, Armenia
  • 2Institute of Scientific Instruments of the CAS, 61264 Brno, Czech Republic
  • 3Technical University in Liberec, 46117 Liberec, Czech Republic
  • 4Czech Technical University in Prague, 16636 Prague, Czech Republic
  • 5Charles University, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, 12116 Prague, Czech Republic
  • 6IRFU, CEA, Université Paris-Saclay, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
  • 7Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, North Rhine Westphalia, Germany
  • 8Universität Bochum, Institut für Experimentalphysik, 44780 Bochum, Germany
  • 9Universität Bonn, Helmholtz-Institut für Strahlen- und Kernphysik, 53115 Bonn, Germany
  • 10Universität Bonn, Physikalisches Institut, 53115 Bonn, Germany
  • 11Universität Freiburg, Physikalisches Institut, 79104 Freiburg, Germany
  • 12Universität Mainz, Institut für Kernphysik, 55099 Mainz, Germany
  • 13Technische Universität München, Physik Department, 85748 Garching, Germany
  • 14Matrivani Institute of Experimental Research & Education, Calcutta-700 030, India
  • 15Tel Aviv University, School of Physics and Astronomy, 69978 Tel Aviv, Israel
  • 16Abdus Salam ICTP, 34151 Trieste, Italy
  • 17University of Trieste, Department of Physics, 34127 Trieste, Italy
  • 18Trieste Section of INFN, 34127 Trieste, Italy
  • 19University of Torino, Department of Physics, 10125 Torino, Italy
  • 20Torino Section of INFN, 10125 Torino, Italy
  • 21University of Miyazaki, Miyazaki 889-2192, Japan
  • 22Yamagata University, Yamagata 992-8510, Japan
  • 23National Centre for Nuclear Research, 02-093 Warsaw, Poland
  • 24Warsaw University of Technology, Institute of Radioelectronics, 00-665 Warsaw, Poland
  • 25University of Warsaw, Faculty of Physics, 02-093 Warsaw, Poland
  • 26University of Aveiro, I3N, Department of Physics, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal
  • 27LIP, 1649-003 Lisbon, Portugal
  • 28Affiliated with an international laboratory covered by a cooperation agreement with CERN
  • 29Affiliated with an institute formerly covered by a cooperation agreement with CERN
  • 30CERN, 1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland
  • 31Academia Sinica, Institute of Physics, Taipei 11529, Taiwan
  • 32Center for High Energy and High Field Physics and Department of Physics, National Central University, 300 Zhongda Road, Zhongli 320317, Taiwan
  • 33University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Department of Physics, Urbana, Illinois 61801-3080, USA

  • aContact author: Andrea.Bressan@ts.infn.it
  • bAlso at Dept. of Physics, Pusan National University, Busan 609-735, Republic of Korea; Also at Physics Dept., Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973, USA.
  • cPresent address: NISER, Centre for Medical and Radiation Physics, Bubaneswar, India.
  • dRetired from Ludwig-Maximilians--Universität, 80539 München, Germany.
  • eDeceased
  • fAlso at INFN TIFPA, 38123 Trento, Italy; Also at Universita di Trento, 38123 Trento, Italy.
  • gAlso at KEK, 1-1 Oho, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0801, Japan.
  • hContact author: Albi.Kerbizi@ts.infn.it
  • iAlso at Dept. of Physics, National Kaohsiung Normal University, Kaohsiung County 824, Taiwan.
  • jAlso at Institut fur Theoretische Physik, Universität Tübingen, 72076 Tübingen, Germany.
  • kContact author: Anna.Martin@ts.ifn.it
  • lAlso at ORIGINS Excellence Cluster, 85748 Garching, Germany.
  • mAlso at RIKEN Nishina Center for Accelerator-Based Science, Wako, Saitama 351-0198, Japan.
  • nAlso at University of Eastern Piedmont, 15100 Alessandria, Italy.
  • oContact author: Bakur.Parsamyan@cern.ch
  • pContact author: Marcin.Stolarski@cern.ch
  • qAlso at Chubu University, Kasugai, Aichi 487-8501, Japan.
  • rAlso at Fairmont State University, Department of Natural Sciences, 1201 Locust Ave, Fairmont, West Virginia 26554, USA.
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 171903 – Published 22 October, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/cbmf-s76k

Abstract

In 2022, the COMPASS collaboration performed semi-inclusive measurements of deep-inelastic muon-scattering on a transversely polarized deuteron (LiD6) target. From these data, transverse-spin-dependent dihadron asymmetries are extracted using pairs of oppositely charged hadrons. These asymmetries are directly sensitive to the quark transversity distributions and provide an independent handle on these fundamental quantities with respect to the Collins asymmetries measured in single-hadron production. The present results significantly improve upon the previous COMPASS deuteron measurements, which were the only available deuteron data worldwide, and reach a statistical precision comparable to that of the existing proton results from COMPASS. A small but nonzero asymmetry is observed at large Bjorken-x, consistent with theoretical expectations. A point-by-point extraction of the valence-quark transversity distributions yields, in particular, a substantially improved determination of the d-quark transversity. These measurements represent a major step towards a complete flavor mapping of the transverse-spin structure of the nucleon.

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Outline

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Phys. Rev. Lett. 137, 171903– Published 22 October, 2026
  • Received 26 December 2025
  • Revised 26 March 2026
  • Accepted 5 June 2026
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