No Arabic abstract
We present a computation of nucleon mass corrections to nucleon structure functions for polarized deep-inelastic scattering. We perform a fit to existing data including mass corrections at first order in $m^2/Q^2$ and we study the effect of these corrections on physically interesting quantities. We conclude that mass corrections are generally small, and compatible with current estimates of higher twist uncertainties, when available.
Single-spin asymmetries for pions and charged kaons are measured in semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering of positrons and electrons off a transversely nuclear-polarized hydrogen target. The dependence of the cross section on the azimuthal angles of the target polarization (phi_S)and the produced hadron (phi) is found to have a substantial sin(phi+phi_S) modulation for the production of pi+, pi- and K+. This Fourier component can be interpreted in terms of non-zero transversity distribution functions and non-zero favored and disfavored Collins fragmentation functions with opposite sign. For pi0 and K- production the amplitude of this Fourier component is consistent with zero.
A new implementation of the general PQCD formalism of Collins, including heavy quark mass effects, is described. Important features that contribute to the accuracy and efficiency of the calculation of both neutral current (NC) and charged current (CC) processess are explicitly discussed. This new implementation is applied to the global analysis of the full HERA I data sets on NC and CC cross sections, with correlated systematic errors, in conjunction with the usual fixed-target and hadron collider data sets. By using a variety of parametrizations to explore the parton parameter space, robust new parton distribution function (PDF) sets (CTEQ6.5) are obtained. The new quark distributions are consistently higher in the region x ~ 10^{-3} than previous ones, with important implications on hadron collider phenomenology, especially at the LHC. The uncertainties of the parton distributions are reassessed and are compared to the previous ones. A new set of CTEQ6.5 eigenvector PDFs that encapsulates these uncertainties is also presented.
We have carried out a NLO analysis of the world data on polarized DIS in the MS/bare scheme. We have studied two models of the parametrizations of the input parton densities, the first due to Brodsky, Burkhardt and Schmidt (BBS) which gives a simultaneous parametrization for both the polarized and unpolarized densities and in which the counting rules are strictly imposed, the second in which the input polarized densities are written in terms of the unpolarized ones in the generic form Deltaq(x)=f(x)q(x) with f(x) some simple smooth function. In both cases a good fit to the polarized data is achieved. As expected the polarized data do not allow a precise determination of the polarized gluon density. Concerning the polarized sea-quark densities, these are fairly well determined in the BBS model because of the interplay of polarized and unpolarized data, whereas in the second model, where only the polarized data are relevant, the polarized sea-quark densities are largely undetermined.
We present a first calculation of the heavy flavor contribution to the longitudinally polarized DIS structure function $g_1$, differential in the transverse momentum or the rapidity of the observed heavy antiquark $overline{Q}$. All results are obtained at next-to-leading order accuracy with a newly developed parton-level Monte Carlo generator that also allows one to study observables associated with the heavy quark pair such as its invariant mass distribution or its correlation in azimuthal angle. First phenomenological studies are presented in a kinematic regime relevant for a future Electron-Ion Collider with a particular emphasis on the sensitivity to the helicity gluon distribution. Finally, we also provide first NLO results for the full neutral-current sector of polarized DIS, i.e., including contributions from Z-boson exchange.
Background: DIS on the polarized deuteron with detection of a proton in the nuclear breakup region (spectator tagging) represents a unique method for extracting the neutron spin structure functions and studying nuclear modifications. The tagged proton momentum controls the nuclear configuration during the DIS process and enables a differential analysis of nuclear effects. Such measurements could be performed with the future electron-ion collider (EIC) and forward proton detectors if deuteron beam polarization could be achieved. Purpose: Develop theoretical framework for polarized deuteron DIS with spectator tagging. Formulate procedures for neutron spin structure extraction. Methods: A covariant spin density matrix formalism is used to describe general deuteron polarization in collider experiments (vector/tensor, pure/mixed). Light-front (LF) quantum mechanics is employed to factorize nuclear and nucleonic structure in the DIS process. A 4-dimensional representation of LF spin structure is used to construct the polarized deuteron LF wave function and efficiently evaluate the spin sums. Free neutron structure is extracted using the impulse approximation and analyticity in the tagged proton momentum (pole extrapolation). Results: General expressions of the polarized tagged DIS observables in collider experiments. Analytic and numerical study of the polarized deuteron LF spectral function and nucleon momentum distributions. Practical procedures for neutron spin structure extraction from the tagged deuteron spin asymmetries. Conclusions: Spectator tagging provides new tools for precise neutron spin structure measurements. D-wave depolarization and nuclear binding effects can be eliminated through the tagged proton momentum dependence. The methods can be extended to tensor-polarized observables, spin-orbit effects, and diffractive processes.