Vector Meson Production in Ultraperipheral Heavy Ion Collisions

The ultraperipheral heavy ion collisions (UPC's) are an important alternative to study the QCD dynamics until the next generation of $e^+e^-/ ep / eA$ colliders become reality. Due to the coherent action of all the protons in the nucleus, the electromagnetic field is very strong and the resulting flux of equivalent photons is large, which allows to study two-photon as well as photonuclear interactions at high energies. In this paper we present a brief review of the vector meson production in UPC's at high energies using the QCD color dipole approach to describe their photonuclear production and the perturbative QCD Pomeron (BFKL dynamics) to describe the double meson production in photon-photon process. Predictions for rates and integrated cross sections are presented for energies of RHIC and LHC.Comment: 16 pages, 1 figure. Version to be published in Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physic

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

The Deuteron Spin-dependent Structure Function g1d and its First Moment

We present a measurement of the deuteron spin-dependent structure function g1d based on the data collected by the COMPASS experiment at CERN during the years 2002-2004. The data provide an accurate evaluation for Gamma_1^d, the first moment of g1d(x), and for the matrix element of the singlet axial current, a0. The results of QCD fits in the next to leading order (NLO) on all g1 deep inelastic scattering data are also presented. They provide two solutions with the gluon spin distribution function Delta G positive or negative, which describe the data equally well. In both cases, at Q^2 = 3 (GeV/c)^2 the first moment of Delta G is found to be of the order of 0.2 - 0.3 in absolute value.Comment: fits redone using MRST2004 instead of MRSV1998 for G(x), correlation matrix adde

Double spin asymmetry in exclusive rho^0 muoproduction at COMPASS

The longitudinal double spin asymmetry A_1^rho for exclusive leptoproduction of rho^0 mesons, mu + N -> mu + N + rho, is studied using the COMPASS 2002 and 2003 data. The measured reaction is incoherent exclusive rho^0 production on polarised deuterons. The Q^2 and x dependence of A_1^rho is presented in a wide kinematical range: 3x10^-3 < Q^2 < 7 (GeV/c)^2 and 5x10^-5 < x < 0.05. The presented results are the first measurements of A_1^rho at small Q2 (Q2 < 0.1 (GeV/c)^2) and small x (x < 3x10^-3). The asymmetry is in general compatible with zero in the whole kinematical range.Comment: 6 Figures, 15 pages, version 2 with updated author list, technical latex problem fixe

Collins and Sivers asymmetries for pions and kaons in muon-deuteron DIS

The measurements of the Collins and Sivers asymmetries of identified hadrons produced in deep-inelastic scattering of 160 GeV/c muons on a transversely polarised 6LiD target at COMPASS are presented. The results for charged pions and charged and neutral kaons correspond to all data available, which were collected from 2002 to 2004. For all final state particles both the Collins and Sivers asymmetries turn out to be small, compatible with zero within the statistical errors, in line with the previously published results for not identified charged hadrons, and with the expected cancellation between the u- and d-quark contributions.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures, added author Efremov, calculated pure kaon asymmetries instead of those for experimental kaon/pion mixture (mainly error affected

Diffractive Vector Meson Production at HERA: from soft to hard QCD

Experimental results from HERA on diffractive vector meson production and their theoretical interpretation within microscopic QCD are reviewed with an emphasis on the BFKL color dipole and kt-factorization approaches.Comment: 178 pages including 78 figure

Double spin asymmetry in exclusive rho(0) muoproduction at COMPASS

Alekseev M, Alexakhin VY, Alexandrov Y, et al. Double spin asymmetry in exclusive rho(0) muoproduction at COMPASS. Eur.Phys.J. C. 2007;52(2):255-265.The longitudinal double spin asymmetry A(1)(rho) for exclusive leptoproduction of rho(0) mesons, mu+N ->mu+N+rho, is studied using the COMPASS 2002 and 2003 data. The measured reaction is incoherent exclusive rho(0) production on polarised deuterons. The Q(2) and x dependence of A(1)(rho) is presented in a wide kinematical range, 3x10(-3) rho at small Q(2) (Q(2) < 0.1 (GeV/c)(2) ) and small x (x < 3x10(-3) ). The asymmetry is in general compatible with zero in the whole kinematical range

Measurement of J/ψJ/\psi photoproduction at large momentum transfer at HERA

The proton-dissociative diffractive photoproduction of J/psi mesons has been studied in ep collisions with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 112 pb(-1). The cross section is presented as a function of the photon-proton centre-of-mass energy and of the squared four-momentum transfer at the proton vertex. The results are compared to perturbative QCD calculations