Measurements of parity violating spin asymmetries of the W boson, $W^{\pm} \rightarrow e^{\pm}$, at mid-rapidity with the PHENIX Detector at RHIC

29 Apr 2014, 09:30
20m
D (BUW)

D

BUW

Oral presentation WG6: Spin Physics WG6: Spin Physics

Speaker

Mr Ciprian Gal (Stony Brook University)

Description

Precision measurements of polarized parton distributions (PDFs) lie at the heart of unraveling the nucleon spin puzzle. The $u$ and $d$ quark distributions are significantly better constrained than the anti-quark $\overline{u}$ and $\overline{d}$ distributions. A clean way to measure the anti-quark distributions directly, without the dilution of poorly known polarized fragmentation functions, is to measure the parity violating production with p+p collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 500 GeV and its subsequent decay $W \rightarrow e/\mu$. The PHENIX detector is capable of measuring both in the central and forward rapidity respectively. In this talk we will present the status of $W^{\pm} \rightarrow e^{\pm}$ asymmetry measurement based on $\sim$160 pb$^{-1}$ data collected in 2011, 2012, and 2013.

Primary author

Mr Ciprian Gal (Stony Brook University)

Presentation materials