Inclusive cross section and double-helicity asymmetry for production at midrapidity in collisions at GeV

Adare, A.*; Hasegawa, Shoichi   ; Imai, Kenichi; Nagamiya, Shoji; Sako, Hiroyuki   ; Sato, Susumu  ; Tanida, Kiyoshi   ; PHENIX Collaboration*; 406 of others*

PHENIX measurements are presented for the cross section and double-helicity asymmetry () in inclusive production at midrapidity from collisions at GeV from data taken in 2012 and 2013 at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. The next-to-leading-order perturbative-quantum-chromodynamics theory calculation is in excellent agreement with the presented cross section results. The calculation utilized parton-to-pion fragmentation functions from the recent DSS14 global analysis, which prefer a smaller gluon-to-pion fragmentation function. The results follow an increasingly positive asymmetry trend with and with respect to the predictions and are in excellent agreement with the latest global analysis results. This analysis incorporated earlier results on and jet ALL and suggested a positive contribution of gluon polarization to the spin of the proton for the gluon momentum fraction range . The data presented here extend to a currently unexplored region, down to , and thus provide additional constraints on the value of .