Inclusive cross sections, charge ratio and double-helicity asymmetries for $\pi^+$ and $\pi^-$ production in $p$$+$$p$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}$=200 GeV

The PHENIX collaboration Adare, A. ; Aidala, C. ; Ajitanand, N.N. ; et al.
Phys.Rev.D 91 (2015) 032001, 2015.
Inspire Record 1315330 DOI 10.17182/hepdata.71403

We present the midrapidity charged pion invariant cross sections and the ratio of $\pi^-$-to-$\pi^+$ production ($5<p_T<13$ GeV/$c$), together with the double-helicity asymmetries ($5<p_T<12$ GeV/$c$) in polarized $p$$+$$p$ collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 200$ GeV. The cross section measurements are consistent with perturbative calculations in quantum chromodynamics within large uncertainties in the calculation due to the choice of factorization, renormalization, and fragmentation scales. However, the theoretical calculation of the ratio of $\pi^-$-to-$\pi^+$ production when considering these scale uncertainties overestimates the measured value, suggesting further investigation of the uncertainties on the charge-separated pion fragmentation functions is needed. Due to cancellations of uncertainties in the charge ratio, direct inclusion of these ratio data in future parameterizations should improve constraints on the flavor dependence of quark fragmentation functions to pions. By measuring charge-separated pion asymmetries, one can gain sensitivity to the sign of $\Delta G$ through the opposite sign of the up and down quark helicity distributions in conjunction with preferential fragmentation of positive pions from up quarks and negative pions from down quarks. The double-helicity asymmetries presented are sensitive to the gluon helicity distribution over an $x$ range of $\sim$0.03--0.16.

3 data tables

Invariant cross section for $\pi^+$ and $\pi^-$ hadrons, as well as the statistical and systematic uncertainties. In addition, there is an absolute scale uncertainty of 9.6$\%$.

Double-helicity asymmetries and statistical uncertainties for $\pi^+$ and $\pi^-$ hadrons. The primary systematic uncertainties, which are fully correlated between points, are $1.4\times10^{-3}$ from relative luminosity and a $^{+7.0\%}_{-7.7\%}$ scaling uncertainty from beam polarization.

Ratio of charged pion cross section, as shown in Fig.6.


Measurement of Bottom versus Charm as a Function of Transverse Momentum with Electron-Hadron Correlations in p+p Collisions at sqrt(s)=200 GeV

The PHENIX collaboration Adare, A. ; Afanasiev, S. ; Aidala, C. ; et al.
Phys.Rev.Lett. 103 (2009) 082002, 2009.
Inspire Record 816469 DOI 10.17182/hepdata.57326

The momentum distribution of electrons from semi-leptonic decays of charm and bottom for mid-rapidity |y|<0.35 in p+p collisions at sqrt(s)=200 GeV is measured by the PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) over the transverse momentum range 2 < p_T < 7 GeV/c. The ratio of the yield of electrons from bottom to that from charm is presented. The ratio is determined using partial D/D^bar --> e^{+/-} K^{-/+} X (K unidentified) reconstruction. It is found that the yield of electrons from bottom becomes significant above 4 GeV/c in p_T. A fixed-order-plus-next-to-leading-log (FONLL) perturbative quantum chromodynamics (pQCD) calculation agrees with the data within the theoretical and experimental uncertainties. The extracted total bottom production cross section at this energy is \sigma_{b\b^bar}= 3.2 ^{+1.2}_{-1.1}(stat) ^{+1.4}_{-1.3}(syst) micro b.

6 data tables

Bottom contribution to the electrons from heavy flavor decay as a function of PT. These values has been obtained using g3data software which to extract the data from the plot and should therefore be used with caution. The g3data program indicates an extra uncertainty of 0.01 on these values.

Differential bottom production cross section at mid rapidity (y=0) To obtain this value, the differential "bottom-decay" electrons cross-section has been extrapolated to PT=0 using the spectrum shape predicted by pQCD. The b->e branching ratio used was 10 +-1%.

Invariant cross section of electrons from heavy flavor decay versus PT These values has been obtained using g3data software which to extract the data from the plot and should therefore be used with caution. The values in the last column indicate the level of uncertainty intoduced by g3data.

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