Feasibility study for precisely measuring the EIC ${}^3$He beam polarization with the Polarized Atomic Hydrogen Gas Jet Target polarimeter at RHIC

Abstract

The Polarized Atomic Hydrogen Gas Jet Target polarimeter (HJET) is used to measure the absolute proton beam polarization, $\sigma_P^\text{syst}/P\!\lesssim\!0.5\%$, at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. Here I consider the possibility of employing HJET to measure the ${}^3\text{He}$ ($h$) beam polarization at the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC). The dominant contribution to the ratio of the $h^\uparrow{p}$ and $p^\uparrow{h}$ analyzing powers, which is needed for such measurements, can be easily calculated using well-known values of the proton and helion magnetic moments, but some corrections should be applied to achieve the required accuracy. It was found that corrections due to absorption and ${}^3\text{He}$ breakup effectively cancel in the ratio and a correction due to hadronic spin-flip amplitudes can be derived from the proton beam measurements. As a result, the anticipated systematic uncertainty in the measured ${}^3\text{He}$ beam polarization can satisfy the EIC requirement $\sigma_P^\text{syst}/P\!\lesssim\!1\%$.