Breakup corrections to spin asymmetries in the $^3$He beam polarization measurements with the Polarized Atomic Hydrogen Gas Jet Target

Abstract

The requirements for hadron polarimetry at the future Electron Ion Collider (EIC) include measurements of the absolute helion ($^3$He, $h$) beam polarization with systematic uncertainties better than $\sigma^\text{syst}_P/P\le1\%$. Recently, it was proposed that the Polarized Atomic Hydrogen Gas Jet Target (HJET) be utilized for the precision measurement of the polarization of the $\approx100~\text{GeV/n}$ helion beam. At the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, HJET serves to determine the absolute proton beam polarization with low systematic uncertainties of about $\delta^\text{syst}P/P\lesssim0.5\%$. To adapt the HJET method for the EIC helion beam, the experimentally determined ratio of the beam and target (jet) spin-correlated asymmetries should be adjusted by the ratio of $p^\uparrow{h}$ and $h^\uparrow{p}$ analyzing powers. A potential problem with the suggested method is that the breakup of $^3$He in polarization measurements could drastically affect the analyzing power ratio. However, an analysis of the breakup corrections, presented in this paper, reveals that while these corrections can be as substantial as $\approx4\%$, the effect cancels out to a negligible level in the measured beam polarization.