Transverse Single Spin Asymmetry of Heavy Flavor Electrons in 200 GeV p+p^↑ Collisions at Midrapidity from PHENIX

Understanding the transverse spin and momentum structure of the proton is of great interest to the nuclear physics community and it is one of the main goals of the spin physics program at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). Transverse single spin asymmetry measurements for particles produced in proton-proton collisions provide insight into initial and final state spin-momentum and spin-spin correlations of partons within hadrons. In particular, electrons from heavy flavor decays provide access to initial state spin-momentum correlations of gluons in the proton. Electrons are measured at midrapidity at PHENIX using the central arm spectrometers which consist of an electromagnetic calorimeter, a ring-imaging Cherenkov detector, as well as drift and pad chambers. In addition, the silicon vertex detector is used in order to veto background from conversion electrons. Recent results for the transverse single spin asymmetry of heavy flavor electrons from the 2015 running period (200 GeV p+p^↑) will be presented.