The cos 2ϕ azimuthal asymmetry in ρ0 meson production in ultraperipheral heavy ion collisions

We present a detailed study of vector meson photoproduction in ultraperipheral heavy ion collisions (UPCs). Using the dipole model, we develop a framework for the joint impact parameter and transverse momentum dependent cross sections. We compute the unpolarized cross section and cos 2ϕ azimuthal angular correlation for ρ0 photoproduction with ϕ defined as the angle between the ρ0’s transverse momentum and its decay product pion meson’s transverse momentum. Our result on unpolarized coherent differential cross section gives excellent description to the STAR experimental data. A first compari- son between theoretical calculation and experimental measurement on the cos 2ϕ azimuthal asymmetry, which results from the linearly polarized photons, is performed and reasonable agreement is reached. We find out the characteristic diffractive patterns at both RHIC and LHC energies and predict the impact parameter dependent cos 2ϕ azimuthal asymmetries for ρ0 photoproduction by considering UPCs and peripheral collisions. The future experimental measurements at RHIC and LHC relevant to our calculations will provide a tool to rigorously investigate the coherent and incoherent production of vector meson in UPCs, as well as to probe the nuclear structure in heavy ion collisions.

Probing the top Yukawa coupling at the LHC via associated production of single top and Higgs

We study Higgs boson production associated with single top or anti-top via t-channel weak boson exchange at the LHC. The process is an ideal probe of the top quark Yukawa coupling, because we can measure the relative phase of htt and hWW couplings, thanks to the significant interference between the two amplitudes. By choosing the emitted W momentum along the polar axis in the th ($$ \overline{t}h $$ t ¯ h ) rest frame, we obtain the helicity amplitudes for all the contributing subprocesses analytically, with possible CP phase of the Yukawa coupling. We study the azimuthal asymmetry between the W emission and the Wb ($$ \overline{b} $$ b ¯ ) → t($$ \overline{t} $$ t ¯ ) h scattering planes, as well as several t and $$ \overline{t} $$ t ¯ polarization asymmetries as a signal of CP violating phase in the htt coupling. Both the azimuthal asymmetry and the polarization perpendicular to the scattering plane are found to have the opposite sign between the top and anti-top events. We identify the origin of the sign of asymmetries, and propose the possibility of direct CP violation test in pp collisions by comparing the top and anti-top polarization at the LHC.

Azimuthal asymmetries from 𝜃 vacuum

We present the complete azimuthal asymmetries at leading twist in terms of fragmentation functions in dihadron production semi-inclusive electron–positron annihilation process. When the nontrivial [Formula: see text] vacuum is taken into consideration, the parity symmetry of quantum chromodynamics is violated. As a consequence of the [Formula: see text] [Formula: see text]-odd effects, [Formula: see text]-odd fragmentation functions would contribute to the azimuthal asymmetries. Azimuthal asymmetry coming from two interference terms with opposite signs vanishes when sum over many events. This symmetry only survives on the event-by-event basis. Azimuthal asymmetry coming from two interference terms with same signs survives and can be measured to extract the [Formula: see text]-odd fragmentation functions. We also present the hadron polarizations.