Speaker
Description
The sPHENIX experiment, currently in commissioning at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at BNL, is a new detector built for jet, direct photon, and hadron measurements. Next year, sPHENIX will take data from transversely polarized p+p and p+Au collisions. Transverse single spin asymmetry (TSSA) measurements at sPHENIX from the 2024 run will explore the parton dynamics within transversely polarized protons described in the collinear higher-twist and transverse-momentum dependent (TMD) frameworks. Direct photon, heavy flavor, and inclusive jet TSSA’s will probe the initial-state multi parton correlations that are related to moments of the Sivers TMD parton distribution function (PDF), which describes the correlation between parton transverse momentum and nucleon transverse spin. Measurements of hadron-in-jet and di-hadron asymmetries will explore the transversity PDF, which describes the distribution of transversely polarized quarks in a transversely polarized nucleon. Additionally, single spin asymmetries of hadrons in both p+p and p+Au can further clarify the presence of nuclear modification effects hinted at in previous measurements from earlier experiments. In preparation for spin physics at sPHENIX, dedicated hardware must be installed and online monitoring must be developed to ensure quality spin data. This poster will give an overview of spin physics at sPHENIX and discuss the preparations of the hardware and software necessary for polarized data taking.
