Spin Physics With The Phenix Detector System

The PHENIX experiment at RHIC has extended its scope to cover spin physics using polarized proton beams. The major goals of the spin physics at RHIC are elucidation of the spin structure of the nucleon and precision tests of the symmetries. Sensitivities of the spin physics measurements with the PHENIX detector system are reviewed.

After about three decades of experimental and theoretical efforts, the structure of the nucleon (proton and neutron) is now fairly well understood based on quantum chromodynamics, but only if averaged over its spin. As the recent “proton spin crisis” revealed, we do not understand much about the nucleon structure when its spin is polarized to a specific orientation. We expect that our understanding on this challenging problem will soon be significantly improved by the RHIC-Spin and other experiments in the near future, as well as by the lattice- and perturbative-QCD theoretical calculations. The purpose of this symposium was to summarize the current understanding and discuss the future perspective of this problem with experimental and theoretical physicists from both high-energy and nuclear physics communities.The symposium covered the overview of the structure studies, updates on the experimental results from CERN, SLAC, DESY, FNAL, and KEK, future experiments at RHIC, and recent theoretical developments (18 presentations, 113 participants).

The volume presents an up-to-date survey of spin physics at the very high energies of present and future colliders. Topics discussed include the theory of high-energy spin physics, deep-inelastic scattering, polarization experiments at colliders, the production of high-energy polarized electron and proton beams, the construction of intense polarized sources and high-energy polarimeters. It will represent a significant reference in the field and an informative text for non-specialists as well, with rather complete keynote overview reports by some physicists who have contributed most to the subject. In addition, it will document the character of frontier research symposium of the Conference, with specialized reports of leading experts in the various items of the field.

The topics covered in the conference ranged from the physics that can be done with polarized beams of particles (protons, electrons, gamma-rays, etc.) to the techniques and instrumentation necessary to achieve this. Topics included: nucleon structure measurements (from where does the spin of the proton and neutron come), the acceleration, storage and polarization of particle beams and the polarized targets and sources necessary for mounting the experiments.

Experiments using highly polarized intense beams and targets, and theoretical studies of spin and polarization phenomena, are now providing us with numerous additional details of the electroweak and strong interactions and the structure of matter. The spin structure of the nucleon has been measured over wide ranges of kinematic variables, and the cross sections have been calculated to several orders in perturbative field theory. At present, the influence of the higher twist contributions, the gluon spin, and the quark orbital angular momentum are under scrutiny. Quantum chromodynamics (QCD) captures a lot of our experimental knowledge of hard polarized scattering processes. Can our understanding of such processes within QCD be further improved?Hyperons produced in high energy reactions show how puzzling strong interactions between hadrons still are. Spin observables in experiments at intermediate energy are used to test parity and charge symmetries. Will they also reveal, at low energy, a violation of time reversal symmetry? We are on the verge of using parity violation measurements at intermediate electron scattering energies to determine the amount of strange quark contributions to the neutral weak form factor of the nucleon. The polarization of the sea quarks is expected to be measured soon in W± decays produced in high energy polarized proton interactions. Will the jets in polarized Z⁰ decays show a definite handedness? These and many other topics are discussed in these proceedings.

Operation of RHIC with two beams of highly polarized protons (70%, either longitudinal or transverse) at high luminosity L = 2 x 1032 cm−2 sec−1 for two months/year will allow the STAR and PHENIX detectors to perform high statististics studies of polarization phenomena in the perturbative region of hard scattering where both QCD and ElectroWeak theory make detailed predictions for polarization effects. The collision c.m. energy, (square root)s = 200 - 500 GeV, represents a new domain for the study of spin. Direct photon production will be used to measure the gluon polarization in the polarized proton. A new twist comes from W-boson production which is expected to be 100% parity violating and will thus allow measurements of flavor separated Quark and antiquark (u, {bar u}, d, {bar d}) polarization distributions. Searches for parity violation in strong interaction processes such as jet and leading particle production will be a sensitive way to look for new physics beyond the standard model, one possibility being quark substructure.