Jet Charge: A Flavor Prism for Spin Asymmetries at the EIC

Understand

We propose the jet charge observable as a novel probe of flavor structure in the nucleon spin program at the Electron Ion Collider (EIC).

• We show that jet charge measurements can substantially enhance the sensitivity of spin asymmetries to different partonic flavors in the nucleon.
• This sensitivity can be further improved by constructing the jet charge using only a subset of hadron species (pions or kaons) in the jet.
• As an example, we use the Sivers asymmetry in back-to-back electron-jet production at the EIC to show that the jet charge can be a unique tool in constraining the Sivers function for different partonic flavors.