Interplay among transversity induced asymmetries in hadron leptoproduction

In the fragmentation of a transversely polarized quark several left-right asymmetries are possible for the hadrons in the jet. When only one unpolarized hadron is selected, it exhibits an azimuthal modulation known as Collins effect. When a pair of oppositely charged hadrons is observed, three asymmetries can be considered, a di-hadron asymmetry and two single hadron asymmetries. In lepton deep inelastic scattering on transversely polarized nucleons all these asymmetries are coupled with the transversity distribution. From the high statistics COMPASS data on oppositely charged hadron-pair production we have investigated for the first time the dependence of these three asymmetries on the difference of the azimuthal angles of the two hadrons. The similarity of transversity induced single and di-hadron asymmetries is discussed. A new analysis of the data allows to establish quantitative relationships among them, providing for the first time strong experimental indication that the underlying fragmentation mechanisms are all driven by a common physical process.Peer Reviewe

Collins and Sivers asymmetries in muonproduction of pions and kaons off transversely polarised protons

Measurements of the Collins and Sivers asymmetries for charged pions and charged and neutral kaons produced in semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering of high energy muons off transversely polarised protons are presented. The results were obtained using all the available COMPASS proton data, which were taken in the years 2007 and 2010. The Collins asymmetries exhibit in the valence region a non-zero signal for pions and there are hints of non-zero signal also for kaons. The Sivers asymmetries are found to be positive for positive pions and kaons and compatible with zero otherwise.Peer Reviewe

Spin alignment and violation of the OZI rule in exclusive ω\omega and ϕ\phi production in pp collisions

Exclusive production of the isoscalar vector mesons ω and ϕ is measured with a 190 GeV/c proton beam impinging on a liquid hydrogen target. Cross section ratios are determined in three intervals of the Feynman variable xF of the fast proton. A significant violation of the OZI rule is found, confirming earlier findings. Its kinematic dependence on xF and on the invariant mass MpV of the system formed by fast proton pfast and vector meson V is discussed in terms of diffractive production of pfastV resonances in competition with central production. The measurement of the spin density matrix element ρ00 of the vector mesons in different selected reference frames provides another handle to distinguish the contributions of these two major reaction types. Again, dependences of the alignment on xF and on MpV are found. Most of the observations can be traced back to the existence of several excited baryon states contributing to ω production which are absent in the case of the ϕ meson. Removing the low-mass MpV resonant region, the OZI rule is found to be violated by a factor of eight, independently of xF .Peer Reviewe

Search for exclusive photoproduction of Zc±_c^{\pm}(3900) at COMPASS

A search for the exclusive production of the Zc±(3900) hadron by virtual photons has been performed in the channel Zc±(3900)→J/ψπ± . The data cover the range from 7 GeV to 19 GeV in the centre-of-mass energy of the photon–nucleon system. The full set of the COMPASS data set collected with a muon beam between 2002 and 2011 has been used. An upper limit for the ratio BR(Zc±(3900)→J/ψπ±)×σγN→Zc±(3900)N/σγN→J/ψN of 3.7×10−3 has been established at the confidence level of 90%.Peer Reviewe