Azimuthal asymmetries in unpolarized SIDIS and Drell-Yan processes: A case study towards TMD factorization at subleading twist

We consider the azimuthal distribution of the final observed hadron in semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering and the lepton pair in the Drell-Yan process. In particular, we focus on the cos phi modulation of the unpolarized cross section and on its dependence upon transverse momentum. At low transverse momentum, for these observables we propose a factorized expression based on tree-level approach and conjecture that the same formula is valid in transverse-momentum dependent (TMD) factorization when written in terms of subtracted TMD parton distributions. Our formula correctly matches with the collinear factorization results at high transverse momentum, solves a long-standing problem and is a necessary step towards the extension of the TMD factorization theorems up to the subleading twist. (C) 2019 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V.