Double Helicity Dependence of Jet Properties from Dihadrons in Longitudinally Polarized p+p Collisions at sqrt(s) = 200 GeV

Abstract

It has been postulated that partonic orbital angular momentum can lead to a significant double-helicity dependence in the net transverse momentum of Drell-Yan dileptons produced in longitudinally polarized p+p collisions. Analogous effects are also expected for dijet production. If confirmed by experiment, this hypothesis, which is based on semi-classical arguments, could lead to a new approach for studying the contributions of orbital angular momentum to the proton spin. We report the first measurement of the double-helicity dependence of the dijet transverse momentum in longitudinally polarized p+p collisions at sqrt(s) = 200 GeV from data taken by the PHENIX experiment in 2005 and 2006. The analysis deduces the transverse momentum of the dijet from the widths of the near- and far-side peaks in the azimuthal correlation of the dihadrons. When averaged over the transverse momentum of the triggered particle, the difference of the root-mean-square of the dijet transverse momentum between like- and unlike-helicity collisions is found to be -37 +/- 88(stat) +/- 14(syst) MeV/c.