Single-Spin Asymmetries in Semi-Inclusive Deep Inelastic Scattering on Transversely Polarized Neutrons using the BigBite and Super BigBite Spectrometers

The precision study of the semi-inclusive electroproduction of hadrons in deep inelastic lepton-nucleus scattering (SIDIS) has emerged as an important worldwide goal of nuclear physics, owing to its direct sensitivity to novel multi-dimensional aspects of hadron structure that are otherwise inaccessible in the inclusive DIS process, including the effects of quark flavor, quark transverse momentum and quark transverse spin, interpreted within the framework of Transverse Momentum Dependent parton distributions (TMDs). The study of transverse target single-spin asymmetries (SSAs) in SIDIS has attracted particular interest, given the sensitivity of these observables to novel spin-spin and spin-orbit correlations such as the Collins and Sivers effects. To move beyond the initial exploration and discovery of these effects by the pioneering HERMES and COMPASS experiments to precision mapping within the broad four-dimensional kinematic phase space of the SIDIS process is quite challenging experimentally, which is why little new data on these observables has been produced for more than a decade. Several ambitious experiments are planned at Jefferson Lab to measure these SSAs for both proton and neutron targets. High-luminosity polarized Helium-3 targets based on Spin-Exchange Optical Pumping are attractive as effective polarized neutron targets. The moderately large acceptance and the high-rate/high-luminosity capabilities of the BigBite and Super BigBite spectrometers in Hall A are well suited to the study of SIDIS SSAs on transversely polarized Helium-3 in particular. Experiment E12-09-018, first approved by JLab PAC38 in 2011, will measure the SSAs in the semi-inclusive production of charged and neutral pions and charged kaons from Helium-3, with broad, multi-dimensional kinematic coverage focused on the high-Q², high-x (valence) regime with a statistical figure-of-merit 10-100 times better than any existing measurement on a proton or neutron target. In this talk, I will give a brief overview of the experiment, its history, its current status, and its unique role within the worldwide landscape of SIDIS SSA/TMD studies at JLab and the future EIC.