Single-Spin Asymmetries in Inclusive and Exclusive Hadronic Processes

TL;DR

This paper explores the theoretical basis for single-spin asymmetries in electron-proton scattering and electron-positron annihilation, emphasizing the importance of measuring these asymmetries to understand the spin-dependent structure of hadronic processes.

Contribution

It presents a unified theoretical framework for understanding single-spin asymmetries in both inclusive and exclusive hadronic processes involving baryons.

Findings

Presence of a Lorentz symmetric spin-dependent term in hadronic tensor decomposition.

Proposal to measure single-spin asymmetries at B-factories for $ ext{Lambda}$ production.

First potential measurement of the structure function of the symmetric spin-dependent hadronic tensor.

Abstract

We investigate the single-spin asymmetries in inclusive and exclusive processes of electron-proton scattering and electron-positron annihilation. In the decomposition of hadronic tensor, a Lorentz symmetric spin-dependent term is generally present. The existence of such a term implies single-spin asymmetries in these processes and these single-spin asymmetries for baryons can be understood in a unified manner. We argue that it is important to measure the single-spin asymmetries in both inclusive and exclusive processes for the $\Lambda$ production at the present B-factories. This will lead to the first measurement of the structure function of the symmetric spin-dependent hadronic tensor in these processes.