Jet charge: A new tool to probe the anomalous Zb(b)over-bar couplings at the EIC

We propose to probe the Zb (b) over bar interactions at the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) by utilizing the average jet charge weighted single-spin asymmetry A(e)(bQ), which is induced by different cross sections of a left-handed and right-handed electron beam scattering off an unpolarized proton beam in the neutral current deeply-inelastic scattering processes with one observed b-tagged jet. This novel observable at the EIC is sensitive to the axial-vector component of the Zb (b) over bar coupling, providing similar information as the gg -> Zh cross section measurement at the high-luminosity Large Hadron Collider, and is complementary to the single-spin asymmetry measurement at the EIC which is sensitive to the vector component of the Zb (b) over bar coupling. We show that the apparent degeneracy of the allowed Zb (b) over bar coupling in its vector and axial-vector components, implied by the Large Electron-Positron Collider (LEP) and the Stanford Linear Collider (SLC) precision electroweak data, can be broken by the A(e)(bQ) measurement at the EIC. With a large enough integrated luminosity collected at the EIC, the measurement of A(e)(bQ) could also resolve the long-standing discrepancy between bottom quark forward-backward asymmetry A(FB)(b) at the LEP and the Standard Model prediction, with a strong dependence on the b-tagging efficiency. (C) 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Automated summary

We propose to study the coupling effects of Zb (b) processes by measuring the jet charge weighted single-spin asymmetry at EIC, which provides important information for addressing the discrepancy between the Standard Model and experimental data.