Transverse Momentum Dependent Parton Distribution/Fragmentation Functions at an Electron-Ion Collider
M. Anselmino, H. Avakian, D. Boer, F. Bradamante, M. Burkardt, J. P. Chen, E. Cisbani, M. Contalbrigo, D. Crabb, D. Dutta, L. Gamberg, H. Gao, D. Hasch, J. Huang, M. Huang, Z. Kang, C. Keppel, G. Laskaris, Z-T. Liang, M. X. Liu, N. Makins, R. D. Mckeown, A. Metz, Z-E. Meziani, B. Musch, J-C. Peng, A. Prokudin, X. Qian, Y. Qiang, J. W. Qiu, P. Rossi, P. Schweitzer, J. Soffer, V. Sulkosky, Y. Wang, B. Xiao, Q. Ye, Q-J. Ye, F. Yuan, X. Zhan, Y. Zhang, W. Zheng, J. Zhou
TL;DR
The paper synthesizes theoretical progress on TMDs and their experimental access, including gauge invariance, gauge links, universality (and its process dependence), and the Sivers sign change between SIDIS and Drell-Yan. It surveys leading-twist TMDs, gluon TMDs via select observables, twist-3 multi-parton correlators and tri-gluon functions, and the interplay with lattice QCD results and small-x physics. It reports simulations of SIDIS single spin asymmetries at a future EIC and discusses detector requirements and phase-space coverage to enable precise TMD extractions. The authors advocate SIDIS SSA as a golden program to probe valence and sea quarks and gluons, advancing our understanding of spin, orbital dynamics, and hadronization in QCD.
Abstract
We present a summary of a recent workshop held at Duke University on Partonic Transverse Momentum in Hadrons: Quark Spin-Orbit Correlations and Quark-Gluon Interactions. The transverse momentum dependent parton distribution functions (TMDs), parton-to-hadron fragmentation functions, and multi-parton correlation functions, were discussed extensively at the Duke workshop. In this paper, we summarize first the theoretical issues concerning the study of partonic structure of hadrons at a future electron-ion collider (EIC) with emphasis on the TMDs. We then present simulation results on experimental studies of TMDs through measurements of single spin asymmetries (SSA) from semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering (SIDIS) processes with an EIC, and discuss the requirement of the detector for SIDIS measurements. The dynamics of parton correlations in the nucleon is further explored via a study of SSA in D (`D) production at large transverse momenta with the aim of accessing the unexplored tri-gluon correlation functions. The workshop participants identified the SSA measurements in SIDIS as a golden program to study TMDs in both the sea and valence quark regions and to study the role of gluons, with the Sivers asymmetry measurements as examples. Such measurements will lead to major advancement in our understanding of TMDs in the valence quark region, and more importantly also allow for the investigation of TMDs in the sea quark region along with a study of their evolution.