Probing gluon helicity distribution and quark transversity through hyperon polarization in singly polarized pp collisions

Abstract

We study the polarization of hyperon in different processes in singly polarized $pp$ collisions, in particular its relation to the polarized parton distributions. We show that by measuring hyperon polarization in particularly chosen processes, one can extract useful information on these parton distributions. We show in particular that, by measuring the ${\Sigma }^{+}$ polarization in high $p_T$ direct photon production process, one can extract information on the gluon helicity distribution; and by measuring the transverse polarization of hyeprons with high $p_T$ in singly polarized reactions, one can obtain useful information on the transversity distribution. We present the numerical results obtained for those hyperon polarizations using different models for parton distribution function and those for the spin transfer in fragmentation processes.

25 pages, 8 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. D