Transverse single spin asymmetry in direct photon production in polarized pA collisions

Abstract

We study the transverse single spin asymmetry in direct photon production in pA collisions with incoming protons being transversely polarized. To facilitate the calculation, we formulate a hybrid approach in which the nucleus is treated in the Color Glass Condensate (CGC) framework while the collinear twist-3 formalism is applied on the proton side. It has been found that an additional term which arises from color entanglement shows up in the spin dependent differential cross section. The fact that this additional term is perturbatively calculable allows us to quantitatively study color entanglement effects.