The Polarised Valence Quark Distribution from semi-inclusive DIS

The semi-inclusive difference asymmetry A^{h^{+}-h^{-}} for hadrons of opposite charge has been measured by the COMPASS experiment at CERN. The data were collected in the years 2002-2004 using a 160 GeV polarised muon beam scattered off a large polarised ^6LiD target and cover the range 0.006 < x < 0.7 and 1 < Q^2 < 100 (GeV/c)^2. In leading order QCD (LO) the asymmetry A_d^{h^{+}-h^{-}} measures the valence quark polarisation and provides an evaluation of the first moment of Delta u_v + Delta d_v which is found to be equal to 0.40 +- 0.07 (stat.) +- 0.05 (syst.) over the measured range of x at Q^2 = 10 (GeV/c)^2. When combined with the first moment of g_1^d previously measured on the same data, this result favours a non-symmetric polarisation of light quarks Delta u-bar = - Delta d-bar at a confidence level of two standard deviations, in contrast to the often assumed symmetric scenario Delta u-bar = Delta d-bar = Delta s-bar = Delta s.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, COMPASS, revised: details added, author list update

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. © 2015

Polarised Drell-Yan measurements at COMPASS

Much of the information that exists today about Transverse Momentum Dependent Parton Distribution Functions (TMDs) comes from SIDIS measurements with unpolarised and polarised beams and targets where they appear convoluted with fragmentation functions (FFs). Drell-Yan (DY) measurements are complementary to those by SIDIS experiments, as they allow to measure convolutions of only Parton Distribution Functions (PDFs) without involving FFs. Moreover, given the T-odd character of both Sivers and Boer-Mulders functions, the sign of these TMDs is expected to be reversed when observed from SIDIS or from DY. Measurements of SIDIS were performed by Compass in the period 2002 to 2007 and in 2010, using a naturally polarised µ+ beam and a solid state target polarised either longitudinally or transversely with respect to the beam direction. Now the COMPASS Experiment has the unique opportunity to access TMDs from single-polarised Drell-Yan processes as well, in the same kinematical domain of the SIDIS data and with the same experimental setup; it will allow to test the TMDs universality and the sign change prediction for the first time. We present here the upcoming polarised DY measurements at COMPASS