NLO corrections and factorization for transverse single-spin asymmetries

Abstract

We present next-to-leading order QCD corrections for the cross sections for $\ell p^{\uparrow }\to hX$, $\ell p^{\uparrow }\to \mathrm{jet}X$ with transversely polarized initial protons. These cross sections are known to be power-suppressed in QCD and probe twist-3 parton correlation functions in the proton. Our calculation exhibits the full complexity of a perturbative QCD analysis beyond leading power, involving in particular various derivatives of the parton correlation functions. We demonstrate that collinear factorization for these single-spin observables holds at one loop. We also present exploratory phenomenological results for the NLO single-spin asymmetry in $e{p}^{\uparrow }\to hX$ and compare to data from the HERMES experiment.

7 pages, 4 figures; v2: minor revisions to the text, references added. Published in PRL