ABSTRACT
We calculate the diphoton distribution in the decay of arbitrary spin-0 and spin-2 bosons produced from gluon fusion, taking into account the fact that gluons inside an unpolarized proton are generally linearly polarized. The gluon polarization brings about a difference in the transverse momentum distribution of positive and negative parity states. At the same time, it causes the azimuthal distribution of the photon pair to be nonisotropic for several spin-2 coupling hypotheses, allowing one to distinguish these from the isotropic scalar and pseudoscalar distributions.
ABSTRACT
We study how gluons carrying linear polarization inside an unpolarized hadron contribute to the transverse momentum distribution of Higgs bosons produced in hadronic collisions. They modify the distribution produced by unpolarized gluons in a characteristic way that could be used to determine whether the Higgs boson is a scalar or a pseudoscalar particle.
ABSTRACT
We consider photon pair production in hadronic collisions at large mass and small transverse momentum of the pair, assuming that factorization in terms of transverse-momentum dependent parton distributions applies. The unpolarized cross section is found to have azimuthal angular dependencies that are generated by a gluonic version of the Boer-Mulders function. In addition, the single transversely polarized cross section is sensitive to the gluon Sivers function. We present simple numerical estimates for the Boer-Mulders and Sivers effects in diphoton production at RHIC and find that the process would offer unique opportunities for exploring transverse-momentum dependent gluon distributions.
