Hadron plus photon production in polarized hadronic collisions at next-to-leading order accuracy

Abstract

We compute the next-to-leading order QCD corrections to the polarized (and unpolarized) cross sections for the production of a hadron accompanied by an opposite-side prompt photon. This process, being studied at RHIC, permits us to reconstruct partonic kinematics using experimentally measurable variables. We study the correlation between the reconstructed momentum fractions and the true partonic ones, which in the polarized case might allow us to reveal the spin-dependent gluon distribution with a higher precision.

Comments: 18 figures included. New version, discussion about polarized asymmetries extended, 7 new figures, new references