PHENIX Measurement of Parity-Violating Single Spin Asymmetry in W Production in p+p Collisions at 500 GeV

Abstract

The flavor-separated polarized parton distribution functions for light quarks and anti-quarks in the proton can be studied in the production of $W$ bosons in $p$+$p$ collisions. The $W$s are produced in processes like $u+\bar{d}\to W^{+}$ and $\bar{u}+d\to W^{-}$ and we observe the lepton (an electron or muon) from the decay channel $W^{\pm }\to l^{\pm }\nu$. The electron energy spectrum from $W$ decays measured with an integrated luminosity of approximately 10 pb${}^{-1}$ will be shown, with a measurement of the electron single spin asymmetry in central rapidity.

arXiv commentProceedings of the DIFFRACTION 2010 Conference; 4 pages, 2 figures