- Open Access
Measurement of Direct-Photon Cross Section and Double-Helicity Asymmetry at in Collisions
Phys. Rev. Lett. 130, 251901 – Published 21 June, 2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.130.251901
Abstract
We present measurements of the cross section and double-helicity asymmetry of direct-photon production in collisions at . The measurements have been performed at midrapidity () with the PHENIX detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. At relativistic energies, direct photons are dominantly produced from the initial quark-gluon hard scattering and do not interact via the strong force at leading order. Therefore, at , where leading-order-effects dominate, these measurements provide clean and direct access to the gluon helicity in the polarized proton in the gluon-momentum-fraction range , with direct sensitivity to the sign of the gluon contribution.
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