The Sivers asymmetry of vector meson production in semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering

Abstract

The transverse single-spin asymmetry for $ρ^0$ production in semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering was recently reported by the COMPASS Collaboration. Using the Sivers functions extracted from pion and kaon productions, we perform a calculation of the Sivers asymmetry within the transverse momentum dependent factorization. Our results are consistent with the COMPASS data, confirming the universality of the Sivers functions within current experimental uncertainties. While various global analyses of Sivers functions can equally well describe the current data, we obtain very different predictions on the Sivers asymmetry of $ρ$ and $K^*$ productions at electron-ion colliders, which therefore are expected to provide further constraints.