ECCE sensitivity studies for single hadron transverse single spin asymmetry measurements

Abstract

Copyright 2022 The Author(s). We performed feasibility studies for various single transverse spin measurements that are related to the Sivers effect, transversity and the tensor charge, and the Collins fragmentation function. The processes studied include semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering (SIDIS) where single hadrons (pions and kaons) were detected in addition to the scattered DIS lepton. The data were obtained in pythia6 and geant4 simulated e+p collisions at 18 GeV on 275 GeV, 18 on 100, 10 on 100, and 5 on 41 that use the ECCE detector configuration. Typical DIS kinematics were selected, most notably 𝑄2 > 1 GeV2, and cover the 𝑥 range from 10−4 to 1. The single spin asymmetries were extracted as a function of 𝑥 and 𝑄2, as well as the semi-inclusive variables 𝑧, which corresponds to the momentum fraction the detected hadron carries relative to the struck parton, and 𝑃𝑇 , which corresponds to the transverse momentum of the detected hadron relative to the virtual photon. They are obtained in azimuthal moments in combinations of the azimuthal angles of the hadron transverse momentum and transverse spin of the nucleon relative to the lepton scattering plane. In order to extract asymmetries, the initially unpolarized MonteCarlo was re-weighted in the true kinematic variables, hadron types and parton flavors based on global fits of fixed target SIDIS experiments and 𝑒+𝑒− annihilation data. The expected statistical precision of such measurements is extrapolated to 10 fb−1 and potential systematic uncertainties are approximated given the deviations between true and reconstructed yields. Similar neutron information is obtained by comparing the ECCE e+p pseudo-data with the same from the EIC Yellow Report and scaling the corresponding Yellow Report e+3He pseudo-data uncertainties accordingly. The impact on the knowledge of the Sivers functions, transversity and tensor charges, and the Collins function has then been evaluated in the same phenomenological extractions as in the Yellow Report. The impact is found to be comparable to that obtained with the parametrized Yellow Report detector and shows that the ECCE detector configuration can fulfill the physics goals on these quantities