Isolated photons at hadron colliders at O( ααS2) (II): Spin-dependent case

The cross section for inclusive prompt photon production with polarized hadron beams is calculated at order αα_s² using the phase-space slicing or analytic/Monte Carlo method. Isolation cuts are placed on the photon and the results are compared to a previous fully analytic calculation. Numerical results for the isolated cross section are presented for overlinepp → γ + X at RHIC centre-of-mass energies with plausible isolation parameters using the most modern polarized parton densities evolved in next-to-leading order QCD. The perturbative stability of the asymmetries and scale dependence of the results are briefly discussed.