The reaction Cl + H2CO yields HCl + HCO: Decreased sensitivity of stratospheric ozone to chlorine perturbations

The absolute rate constant for the reaction Cl + H2CO yields HCl + HCO was determined by the flash-photolysis resonance fluorescence method to be 7.5 plus or minus 0.9 (2 sigma) times 10 to the minus 11th power cu cm/molecule sec at 298 K and to have a negligible temperature dependence. This rate which is more than 2000 times faster than the rate of Cl + CH4 indicates that formaldehyde (H2CO) will compete significantly with methane (CH4) for the conversion of active chlorine in the stratosphere to the inactive reservoir HCl. Chlorine will thus be a less efficient destroyer of stratosphere ozone than previously believed. Ambient stratospheric ozone will depend less on the ambient chlorine amount and the predicted response to chlorine perturbations will be lessened. One-dimensional eddy-diffusion photochemical model calculations indicate a factor of 1.1 less sensitivity to chlorine than recently reported. For a steady-state CFM release at 1975 rates (750,000 tons/year) the eventual ozone depletion is now calculated to be 14%

Towards a Model Climatology of Relative Humidity in the Upper Troposphere for Estimation of Contrail and Contrail-Induced Cirrus

The formation of contrails and contrail cirrus is very sensitive to the relative humidity of the upper troposphere. To reduce uncertainty in an estimate of the radiative impact of aviation-induced cirrus, a model must therefore be able to reproduce the observed background moisture fields with reasonable and quantifiable fidelity. Here we present an upper tropospheric moisture climatology from a 26-year ensemble of simulations using the GEOS CCM. We compare this free-running model's moisture fields to those obtained from the MLS and AIRS satellite instruments, our most comprehensive observational databases for upper tropospheric water vapor. Published comparisons have shown a substantial wet bias in GEOS-5 assimilated fields with respect to MLS water vapor and ice water content. This tendency is clear as well in the GEOS CCM simulations. The GEOS-5 moist physics in the GEOS CCM uses a saturation adjustment that prevents supersaturation, which is unrealistic when compared to in situ moisture observations from MOZAIC aircraft and balloon sondes as we will show. Further, the large-scale satellite datasets also consistently underestimate super-saturation when compared to the in-situ observations. We place these results in the context of estimates of contrail and contrail cirrus frequency

Multiplicities of charged kaons from deep-inelastic muon scattering off an isoscalar target

Precise measurements of charged-kaon multiplicities in deep inelastic scattering were performed. The results are presented in three-dimensional bins of the Bjorken scaling variable x, the relative virtual-photon energy y, and the fraction z of the virtual-photon energy carried by the produced hadron. The data were obtained by the COMPASS Collaboration by scattering 160 GeV muons off an isoscalar 6 LiD target. They cover the kinematic domain 1 (GeV/c)2 5 GeV/c^2 in the invariant mass of the hadronic system. The results from the sum of the z-integrated K+ and K- multiplicities at high x point to a value of the non-strange quark fragmentation function larger than obtained by the earlier DSS fit.Peer Reviewe

Experimental investigation of transverse spin asymmetries in muon-p SIDIS processes: Collins asymmetries

The COMPASS Collaboration at CERN has measured the transverse spin azimuthal asymmetry of charged hadrons produced in semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering using a 160 GeV positive muon beam and a transversely polarised NH_3 target. The Collins asymmetry of the proton was extracted in the Bjorken x range 0.003<x<0.7. These new measurements confirm with higher accuracy previous measurements from the COMPASS and HERMES collaborations, which exhibit a definite effect in the valence quark region. The asymmetries for negative and positive hadrons are similar in magnitude and opposite in sign. They are compatible with model calculations in which the u-quark transversity is opposite in sign and somewhat larger than the d-quark transversity distribution function. The asymmetry is extracted as a function of Bjorken $x$, the relative hadron energy $z$ and the hadron transverse momentum p_T^h. The high statistics and quality of the data also allow for more detailed investigations of the dependence on the kinematic variables. These studies confirm the leading-twist nature of the Collins asymmetry.Peer Reviewe

Measurement of azimuthal hadron asymmetries in semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering off unpolarised nucleons

Spin-averaged asymmetries in the azimuthal distributions of positive and negative hadrons produced in deep inelastic scattering were measured using the CERN SPS longitudinally polarised muon beam at 160 GeV/c and a 6 LiD target. The amplitudes of the three azimuthal modulations cos⁡ϕh , cos⁡2ϕh and sin⁡ϕh were obtained binning the data separately in each of the relevant kinematic variables x , z or pTh and binning in a three-dimensional grid of these three variables. The amplitudes of the cos⁡ϕh and cos⁡2ϕh modulations show strong kinematic dependencies both for positive and negative hadrons.Peer Reviewe

Leading-order determination of the gluon polarisation from semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering data

Using a novel analysis technique, the gluon polarisation in the nucleon is re-evaluated using the longitudinal double-spin asymmetry measured in the cross section of semi-inclusive single-hadron muoproduction with photon virtuality $Q^2>1~({\rm GeV}/c)^2$. The data were obtained by the COMPASS experiment at CERN using a 160 GeV/$c$ polarised muon beam impinging on a polarised $^6$LiD target. By analysing the full range in hadron transverse momentum $p_{\rm T}$, the different $p_{\rm T}$-dependences of the underlying processes are separated using a neural-network approach. In the absence of pQCD calculations at next-to-leading order in the selected kinematic domain, the gluon polarisation $\Delta g/g$ is evaluated at leading order in pQCD at a hard scale of $\mu^2= \langle Q^2 \rangle = 3 ({\rm GeV}/c)^2$. It is determined in three intervals of the nucleon momentum fraction carried by gluons, $x_{\rm g}$, covering the range $0.04 \!<\! x_{ \rm g}\! <\! 0.28$~ and does not exhibit a significant dependence on $x_{\rm g}$. The average over the three intervals, $\langle \Delta g/g \rangle = 0.113 \pm 0.038_{\rm (stat.)}\pm 0.036_{\rm (syst.)}$ at $\langle x_{\rm g} \rangle \approx 0.10$, suggests that the gluon polarisation is positive in the measured $x_{\rm g}$ range.Peer Reviewe

Measurement of the charged-pion polarizability

The COMPASS collaboration at CERN has investigated pion Compton scattering, π-γ→π-γ, at center-of-mass energy below 3.5 pion masses. The process is embedded in the reaction π-Ni→π-γNi, which is initiated by 190 GeV pions impinging on a nickel target. The exchange of quasireal photons is selected by isolating the sharp Coulomb peak observed at smallest momentum transfers, Q2&lt;0.0015  (GeV/c)2. From a sample of 63 000 events, the pion electric polarizability is determined to be απ=(2.0±0.6stat±0.7syst)×10-4  fm3 under the assumption απ=-βπ, which relates the electric and magnetic dipole polarizabilities. It is the most precise measurement of this fundamental low-energy parameter of strong interaction that has been addressed since long by various methods with conflicting outcomes. While this result is in tension with previous dedicated measurements, it is found in agreement with the expectation from chiral perturbation theory. An additional measurement replacing pions by muons, for which the cross-section behavior is unambiguously known, was performed for an independent estimate of the systematic uncertainty.Peer Reviewe

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

Transverse-momentum-dependent Multiplicities of Charged Hadrons in Muon-Deuteron Deep Inelastic Scattering

A semi-inclusive measurement of charged hadron multiplicities in deep inelastic muon scattering off an isoscalar target was performed using data collected by the COMPASS Collaboration at CERN. The following kinematic domain is covered by the data: photon virtuality Q2>1  (GeV/c)2, invariant mass of the hadronic system W>5  GeV/c2, Bjorken scaling variable in the range 0.003<x<0.4, fraction of the virtual photon energy carried by the hadron in the range 0.2<z<0.8, and square of the hadron transverse momentum with respect to the virtual photon direction in the range 0.02  (GeV/c)2<PhT2<3  (GeV/c)2. The multiplicities are presented as a function of PhT2 in three-dimensional bins of x, Q2, z and compared to previous semi-inclusive measurements. We explore the small-PhT2 region, i.e. PhT2<1  (GeV/c)2, where hadron transverse momenta are expected to arise from nonperturbative effects, and also the domain of larger PhT2, where contributions from higher-order perturbative QCD are expected to dominate. The multiplicities are fitted using a single-exponential function at small PhT2 to study the dependence of the average transverse momentum ⟨PhT2⟩ on x, Q2 and z. The power-law behavior of the multiplicities at large PhT2 is investigated using various functional forms. The fits describe the data reasonably well over the full measured range.Peer Reviewe

Measurement of the cross section for high-pT hadron production in the scattering of 160-GeV/c muons off nucleons

The differential cross section for the production of charged hadrons with high transverse momenta in the scattering of 160  GeV/c muons off nucleons at low photon virtualities has been measured at the COMPASS experiment at CERN. The results, which cover transverse momenta from 1.1  GeV/c to 3.6  GeV/c, are compared to a perturbative quantum chromodynamics (pQCD) calculation, in order to evaluate the applicability of pQCD to this process in the kinematic domain of the experiment. The shape of the calculated differential cross section as a function of transverse momentum is found to be in good agreement with the experimental data, but the absolute scale is underestimated by next-to-leading order pQCD. The inclusion of all-order resummation of large logarithmic threshold corrections reduces the discrepancy from a factor of 3 to 4 to a factor of 2. The dependence of the cross section on the pseudorapidity and on the virtual photon energy fraction is investigated. Finally the dependence on the charge of the hadrons is discussed.Peer Reviewe