Transverse Charge Distribution as a Probe of Nucleon Transversity

Abstract

We introduce the transverse charge distribution as a spin-sensitive charge-flow probe for fragmentation and nucleon tomography. By measuring the angular distribution of net electric charge around a fragmenting quark, this observable relies entirely on the tracking of charged-particle directions and charge signs, strictly bypassing the need for calorimetric energy measurements. At leading twist, the distribution decomposes into an unpolarized charge monopole and a chiral-odd transverse charge dipole. We derive the operator product expansion of these distributions onto charge-weighted collinear moments: a charge monopole and a charge dipole governed by the Collins effect and couples directly to transversity. Applying this formalism to transversely polarized $p^{\uparrow }p$ collisions at RHIC, we show that charge weighting suppresses the unpolarized monopole background and causes the spin-dependent dipoles from oppositely charged hadrons to add coherently. This coherence strongly enhances the resulting azimuthal asymmetries, establishing a theoretically clean and experimentally precise track-only avenue for extracting transversity.

Comments: 7 pages, 4 figures + Supplemental Material (5 pages, 1 figure)