Probing the Quark Orbital Angular Momentum at Electron-Ion Colliders Using Exclusive π^{0} Production.

We propose to detect signals from quark orbital angular momentum (OAM) through exclusive π^{0} production in electron- (longitudinally polarized) proton collisions. Our analysis demonstrates that the sin2ϕ azimuthal angular correlation between the transverse momentum of the scattered electron and the recoil proton serves as a sensitive probe of quark OAM. Additionally, we present a numerical estimate of the asymmetry associated with this correlation for the kinematics accessible at the Electron-Ion Colliders in the U.S. and China. This study aims to pave the way for the first experimental study of quark OAM in relation to the Jaffe-Manohar spin sum rule.