Nuclear suppression of azimuthal asymmetries in semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering off polarized targets

Abstract

We extend the study of nuclear dependence of the transverse momentum dependent parton distribution functions and azimuthal asymmetries to semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering (SIDIS) off polarized nuclear targets. We show that azimuthal asymmetries are suppressed for SIDIS off a polarized nuclear target relative to that off a polarized nucleon due to multiple scattering inside the nucleus. Using the value of transport parameter inside large nuclei extracted from jet quenching analyses in SIDIS off nuclear targets, we also present a numerical estimate of the nuclear suppression of the azimuthal asymmetry that might be useful to guide the future experimental studies of SIDIS off polarized nuclear targets.