DOE OSTI2021
The STAR collaboration reports a measurement of the transverse single-spin asymmetries, A N , for neutral pions produced in polarized proton collisions with protons ( p p ), with aluminum nuclei ( p Al ) and with gold nuclei ( p Au ) at a nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy of 200 GeV. Neutral pions are observed in the forward direction relative to the transversely polarized proton beam, in the pseudorapidity region 2.7 < η < 3.8 . Results are presented for π 0 s observed in the STAR forward meson spectrometer electromagnetic calorimeter in narrow Feynman x ( x F ) and transverse momentum ( p T ) bins, spanning the range 0.17 < x F < 0.81 and 1.7 < p T < 6.0 GeV / c . For fixed x F < 0.47 , the asymmetries are found to rise with increasing transverse momentum. For larger x F , the asymmetry flattens or falls as p T increases. Parametrizing the ratio r ( A ) ≡ A N ( p A ) / A N ( p p ) = A P over the kinematic range, the ratio r ( A ) is found to depend only weakly on A , with ( P ) = - 0.027 ± 0.005 . No significant difference in P is observed between the low- p T region, p T < 2.5 GeV / c , where gluon saturation effects may play a role, and the high- p T region, p T > 2.5 GeV / c . It is further observed that the value of A N is significantly larger for events with a large- p T isolated π 0 than for events with a nonisolated π 0 accompanied by additional jetlike fragments. The nuclear dependence r ( A ) is similar for isolated and nonisolated π 0 events.
73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗