Single Spin Asymmetry $A_N$ in Polarized Proton-Proton Elastic Scattering at $\sqrt{s}=200$ GeV
nucl-ex
/ Authors
STAR Collaboration, L. Adamczyk, G. Agakishiev, M. M. Aggarwal, Z. Ahammed, A. V. Alakhverdyants, I. Alekseev, J. Alford, C. D. Anson, D. Arkhipkin
and 360 more authors
E. Aschenauer, G. S. Averichev, J. Balewski, A. Banerjee, Z. Barnovska, D. R. Beavis, R. Bellwied, M. J. Betancourt, R. R. Betts, A. Bhasin, A. K. Bhati, H. Bichsel, J. Bielcik, J. Bielcikova, L. C. Bland, I. G. Bordyuzhin, W. Borowski, J. Bouchet, A. V. Brandin, S. G. Brovko, E. Bruna, S. Bültmann, I. Bunzarov,
/ Abstract
We report a high precision measurement of the transverse single spin asymmetry $A_N$ at the center of mass energy $\sqrt{s}=200$ GeV in elastic proton-proton scattering by the STAR experiment at RHIC. The $A_N$ was measured in the four-momentum transfer squared $t$ range $0.003 \leqslant |t| \leqslant 0.035$ $\GeVcSq$, the region of a significant interference between the electromagnetic and hadronic scattering amplitudes. The measured values of $A_N$ and its $t$-dependence are consistent with a vanishing hadronic spin-flip amplitude, thus providing strong constraints on the ratio of the single spin-flip to the non-flip amplitudes. Since the hadronic amplitude is dominated by the Pomeron amplitude at this $\sqrt{s}$, we conclude that this measurement addresses the question about the presence of a hadronic spin flip due to the Pomeron exchange in polarized proton-proton elastic scattering.