Exploring the spin structure of the proton with two-body partonic scattering at RHIC Original Research Article

The STAR collaboration at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider is using polarized proton beams at View the MathML source to study the spin structure of the proton. The first results for the double spin helicity dependence of inclusive jet production are presented along with projections for additional data taken in 2005 and 2006. When fully analyzed these data sets should place strong constraints on the possible contribution of gluonic spin to the proton spin as expressed by ΔG. Future studies using 2-jet or photon-jet coincidences to map out the gluon spin distribution vs. the gluonʹs momentum fraction of the proton are discussed.