Faculty Sponsor

James Drachenberg

College

Arts and Sciences

Discipline(s)

Physics and Astronomy

Presentation Type

Poster Presentation

Symposium Date

5-3-2014

Abstract

Measurements of particle production from polarized-proton collisions at Brookhaven National Laboratory's Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) give insight into proton spin structure. One way to study spin effects such as those due to quark transversity or the Sivers parton distribution function is to analyze spin-dependent asymmetries in the final-state particles produced in transversely polarized-proton collisions. The large angular acceptance of the Solenoidal Tracker at RHIC (STAR) allows the reconstruction of full jets in addition to inclusive hadron production. Analyzing spin-dependent azimuthal asymmetries in p↑+p → jet + X (e.g. Sivers Mechanism) and p↑+ p → jet + π± + X allows one to isolate contributions from the Sivers and Collins effects. Measuring the resolution of the relevant azimuthal angles is critical to quantifying the systematic uncertainties of the asymmetry measurements. A useful means to study the resolutions and response of the STAR detector in light of pile-up backgrounds is to embed simulated events into real zero-bias data. In 2009 and 2011, STAR collected data from polarized-proton collisions at √s = 500 GeV. These samples provide an opportunity to study the angular resolution of inclusive jets at 500 GeV from embedded simulated events, and the progress of these studies will be shown.

Biographical Information about Author(s)

Jacob Long is a graduating senior and is currently pursuing admission to graduate school with the goal of obtaining a Ph.D.

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