Nuclear Dependence of the Transverse-Single-Spin Asymmetry for Forward Neutron Production in Polarized <math><mrow><mi>p</mi><mo>+</mo><mi>A</mi></mrow></math> Collisions at <math><msqrt><msub><mi>s</mi><mrow><mi>N</mi><mi>N</mi></mrow></msub></msqrt><mo>=</mo><mn>200</mn><mtext> </mtext><mtext> </mtext><mi>GeV</mi></math>

During 2015, the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) provided collisions of transversely polarized protons with Au and Al nuclei for the first time, enabling the exploration of transverse-single-spin asymmetries with heavy nuclei. Large single-spin asymmetries in very forward neutron production have been previously observed in transversely polarized p+p collisions at RHIC, and the existing theoretical framework that was successful in describing the single-spin asymmetry in p+p collisions predicts only a moderate atomic-mass-number (A) dependence. In contrast, the asymmetries observed at RHIC in p+A collisions showed a surprisingly strong A dependence in inclusive forward neutron production. The observed asymmetry in p+Al collisions is much smaller, while the asymmetry in p+Au collisions is a factor of 3 larger in absolute value and of opposite sign. The interplay of different neutron production mechanisms is discussed as a possible explanation of the observed A dependence.