The quest for spinning glue in high-energy polarized proton-proton collisions at RHIC

The STAR experiment at the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) is carrying out a spin physics program colliding transverse or longitudinal polarized proton beams at s√ = 200 - 500 GeV to gain a deeper insight into the spin structure and dynamics of the proton. These studies provide fundamental tests of Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD).

One of the main objectives of the STAR spin physics program is the determination of the polarized gluon distribution function through a measurement of the longitudinal double-spin asymmetry, A_LL, for various processes. Recent results will be shown on the measurement of A_LL for inclusive jet production, neutral pion production and charged pion production at s√ = 200 GeV.