Fresh Look at Polarized Deuterons at the Nuclotron/NICA \& HIAF and Beyond

Abstract

Being a spin-1 particle, the deuteron, when polarized, offers access to a wide range of interesting tensor observables. A quest for tensor asymmetries is at the heart of the spin physics with polarized deuterons at future colliders, and calls for frequent tensor polarization flips in storage rings or in deuterium targets. Here we focus on the JEDI developed technique of the Fourier analysis of the horizontal polarization oscillations under continuous radiofrequency driven spin flips. The so generated time-stamped oscillating helicity of stored particles paves the way to the nucleon/nucleus spin structure studies and to the search for the parity violation. Simultaneously a whole set of tensor spin asymmetries, including the off-diagonal ones needed for searches for the T-violation beyond the Standard Model, will be produced. A crucial ingredient is a long polarization lifetime, and we report the first analytic treatment of decoherence of the tensor polarization under continuous radiofrequency spin flips. Our principal conclusion is that at low- and intermediate-energy accelerators the deuteron polarization lifetime could be in the ballpark of several hours, making the oscillating polarization approach viable at Nuclotron/NICA and HIAF. We comment on a utility of the flattop spin-tensor dichroism via oscillations in the cross section of interaction of deuterons in the internal target as a monitor of the tensor polarization. Simultaneously, the dichroism effect can be used for measuring the spin precession frequences and as a comagnetometer to synchronize spin phases of colliding bunches in a collider.