Cross section and double helicity asymmetry for eta mesons and their comparison to pi(0) production in p plus p collisions at root s=200 GeV
2011
Abstract
Measurements of double-helicity asymmetries in inclusive hadron production in polarized p + p collisions are sensitive to helicity-dependent parton distribution functions, in particular, to the gluon helicity distribution, Delta g. This study focuses on the extraction of the double-helicity asymmetry in eta production ((p) over right arrow + (p) over right arrow -} eta + X), the eta cross section, and the eta/pi(0) cross section ratio.
The cross section and ratio measurements provide essential input for the extraction of fragmentation functions that are needed to access the helicity-dependent parton distribution functions.