Paper
Initial-State Interactions and Single-Spin Asymmetries in Drell-Yan Processes
Authors
Stanley J. Brodsky, Dae Sung Hwang, Ivan Schmidt
Abstract
We show that the initial-state interactions from gluon exchange between the incoming quark and the target spectator system lead to leading-twist single-spin asymmetries in the Drell-Yan process. The QCD initial-state interactions produce a odd spin-correlation between the target spin and the virtual photon production plane which is not power-law suppressed in the Drell-Yan scaling limit. The origin of the single-spin asymmetry in is a phase difference between two amplitudes coupling the proton target with to the same final-state, the same amplitudes which are necessary to produce a nonzero proton anomalous magnetic moment. The calculation requires the overlap of target light-front wavefunctions differing by one unit of orbital angular momentum projection thus the SSA in the Drell-Yan reaction provides a direct measure of orbital angular momentum in the QCD bound state. The single-spin asymmetry predicted for the Drell-Yan process is similar to the single-spin asymmetries in deep inelastic semi-inclusive leptoproduction which arises from the final-state rescattering of the outgoing quark.