KT factorization is violated in production of high-transverse-momentum particles in hadron-hadron collisions

John Collins, Jian Wei Qiu

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201 Scopus citations

Abstract

We show that hard-scattering factorization is violated in the production of high-pT hadrons in hadron-hadron collisions, in the case that the hadrons are back-to-back, so that kT factorization is to be used. The explicit counterexample that we construct is for the single-spin asymmetry with one beam transversely polarized. The Sivers function needed here has particular sensitivity to the Wilson lines in the parton densities. We use a greatly simplified model theory to make the breakdown of factorization easy to check explicitly. But the counterexample implies that standard arguments for factorization fail not just for the single-spin asymmetry but for the unpolarized cross section for back-to-back hadron production in QCD in hadron-hadron collisions. This is unlike corresponding cases in e+e- annihilation, Drell-Yan, and deeply inelastic scattering. Moreover, the result endangers factorization for more general hadroproduction processes.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number114014
JournalPhysical Review D - Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology
Volume75
Issue number11
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 28 2007

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Nuclear and High Energy Physics
  • Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)

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