Origin of single transverse-spin asymmetries in high-energy collisions

In this letter, we present, for the first time, a phenomenological analysis that demonstrates single transverse-spin asymmetries in high-energy collisions have a common origin. We perform the first global fit of data from semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering, Drell-Yan, $e^+e^-$ annihilation into hadron pairs, and proton-proton collisions. Consequently, we are able to extract a universal set of non-perturbative functions that describes the observed asymmetries in these reactions. Furthermore, we achieve the first phenomenological agreement with lattice on the up and down quark tensor charges of the nucleon.