Small $x$ Physics Beyond Eikonal Approximation: an Effective Hamiltonian Approach

Abstract

Understanding the spin structure of hadrons in the small $x$ regime is an important direction to unravel the spin puzzle in hadronic physics. To include spin degrees of freedom in the small $x$ regime requires going beyond the usual eikonal approximation in high energy QCD. We developed an effective Hamiltonian approach to study spin related observables in the small $x$ regime using the shockwave formalism. The small-$x$ effective Hamiltonian incorporates both quark and gluon propagators in the background fields and the background field induced interaction vertices up to next-to-eikonal order. A novel feature of sub-eikonal interactions is the background gluon field induced gluon radiation inside the shockwave. Its relation to chromo-electrically polarized Wilson line correlator is established both in small $x$ helicity evolution and in longitudinal double-spin asymmetry for gluon production.