Nuclear effects in leading neutron production

Abstract

Absorptive corrections, known to suppress proton-neutron transitions with large fractional momentum $z\to1$ in pp collisions, become dramatically strong on a nuclear target, and push the partial cross sections of leading neutron production to the very periphery of the nucleus. The mechanism of $π$-$a_1$ interference, which successfully explains the observed single-spin asymmetry in polarized $pp\to nX$, is extended to collisions of polarized protons with nuclei. Corrected for nuclear effects, it explains the observed single-spin azimuthal asymmetry of neutrons, produced in inelastic events, where the nucleus violently breaks up. The single-spin asymmetry is found to be negative and nearly $A$-independent.

6 pages, 5 figures, based on the talk presented by B.Z.K. at DIFFRACTION 2016, September 2-8, 2016, Sicily. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1611.07365