No Arabic abstract
It is shown that in semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering (DIS) of electrons off a complex nucleus A, the detection, in coincidence with the scattered electron, of a nucleus (A-1) in the ground state, as well as of a nucleon and a nucleus (A-2), also in the ground state, may provide unique information on several long standing problems, such as : i) the nature and the relevance of the final state interaction in DIS; ii) validity of the spectator mechanism in DIS; iii) the medium induced modifications of the nucleon structure function; iv) the origin of the EMC effect.
In the QCD evolution of transverse momentum dependent parton distribution and fragmentation functions, the Collins-Soper evolution kernel includes both a perturbative short-distance contribution as well as a large-distance non-perturbative, but strongly universal, contribution. In the past, global fits, based mainly on larger $Q$ Drell-Yan-like processes, have found substantial contributions from non-perturbative regions in the Collins-Soper evolution kernel. In this article, we investigate semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering measurements in the region of relatively small $Q$, of the order of a few GeV, where sensitivity to non-perturbative transverse momentum dependence may become more important or even dominate the evolution. Using recently available deep inelastic scattering data from the COMPASS experiment, we provide estimates of the regions of coordinate space that dominate in TMD processes when the hard scale is of the order of only a few GeV. We find that distance scales that are much larger than those commonly probed in large $Q$ measurements become important, suggesting that the details of non-perturbative effects in TMD evolution are especially significant in the region of intermediate $Q$. We highlight the strongly universal nature of the non-perturbative component of evolution, and its potential to be tightly constrained by fits from a wide variety of observables that include both large and moderate $Q$. On this basis, we recommend detailed treatments of the non-perturbative component of the Collins-Soper evolution kernel for future TMD studies.
We construct a language for identifying kinematical regions of transversely differential semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering cross sections with particular underlying partonic pictures, especially in regions of moderate to low $Q$ where sensitivity to kinematical effects outside the usual very high energy limit becomes non-trivial. The partonic pictures map to power law expansions whose leading contributions ultimately lead to well-known QCD factorization theorems. We propose methods for estimating the consistency of any particular region of overall hadronic kinematics with the kinematics of a given underlying partonic picture. The basic setup of kinematics of semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering is also reviewed in some detail.
We study the single-transverse spin asymmetry for open charm production in the semi-inclusive lepton-hadron deep inelastic scattering. We calculate the asymmetry in terms of the QCD collinear factorization approach for $D$ mesons at high enough $P_{hperp}$, and find that the asymmetry is proportional to the twist-three tri-gluon correlation function in the proton. With a simple model for the tri-gluon correlation function, we estimate the asymmetry for both COMPASS and eRHIC kinematics, and discuss the possibilities of extracting the tri-gluon correlation function in these experiments.
The semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering of electrons off a nucleus A with detection of a slow nucleus (A-1) in the ground or low excitation states, i.e. the process A(e,e(A-1))X, can provide useful information on the origin of the EMC effect and the mechanisms of hadronization. The theoretical description of the process is reviewed and the results of several calculations on few-body systems and complex nuclei are presented.
Different kinematical regimes of semi-inclusive deeply inelastic scattering (SIDIS) processes correspond to different underlying partonic pictures, and it is important to understand the transition between them. This is particularly the case when there is sensitivity to intrinsic transverse momentum, in which case kinematical details can become especially important. We address the question of how to identify the current fragmentation region --- the kinematical regime where a factorization picture with fragmentation functions is appropriate. We distinguish this from soft and target fragmentation regimes. Our criteria are based on the kinematic regions used in derivations of factorization theorems. We argue that, when hard scales are of order a few GeVs, there is likely significant overlap between different rapidity regions that are normally understood to be distinct. We thus comment on the need to take this into account with more unified descriptions of SIDIS, which should span all rapidities for the produced hadron. Finally, we propose general criteria for estimating the proximity to the current region at large Q.