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

Abstract

In this paper, we perform the first simultaneous QCD global analysis 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 nonperturbative functions that describes the observed asymmetries in these reactions. The outcome of our analysis indicates single transverse-spin asymmetries in high-energy collisions have a common origin. Furthermore, we achieve the first phenomenological agreement with lattice QCD on the up and down quark tensor charges.