The First Transverse Single Spin Measurement in High Energy Polarized Proton-Nucleus Collision at the PHENIX experiment at RHIC

Large single spin asymmetries in very forward neutron production seen using the PHENIX zero-degree calorimeters are a long established feature of transversely polarized proton-proton collisions at RHIC. Neutron production near zero degrees is well described by the one-pion exchange framework. The absorptive correction to the OPE generates the asymmetry as a consequence of a phase shift between the spin flip and non-spin flip amplitudes. However, the amplitude predicted by the OPE is too small to explain the large observed asymmetries. A model introducing interference of pion and a ₁-Reggeon exchanges has been successful in reproducing the experimental data. During the RHIC experiment in year 2015, RHIC delivered polarized proton collisions with Au and Al nuclei for the first time, enabling the exploration of the mechanism of transverse single-spin asymmetries with nuclear collisions. The observed asymmetries showed surprisingly strong A-dependence in the inclusive forward neutron production, while the existing framework which was successfull in p+p only predicts moderate A- dependence. Thus the observed data are absolutely unexpected and unpredicted. In this report, experimental and theoretical efforts are discussed to disentangle the observed A-dependence using somewhat semi-inclusive type measurements and Monte-Carlo study, respectively. (paper)