New analysis concerning the strange quark polarization puzzle

TL;DR

This paper investigates the conflicting results on strange quark polarization from inclusive and semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering, confirming that inclusive data consistently indicates negative polarization despite recent precise measurements.

Contribution

The study provides a comprehensive analysis of world data, including new precise measurements, to address the strange quark polarization puzzle and confirms the negative polarization from inclusive data.

Findings

Inclusive data yields negative strange quark polarization.

Semi-inclusive data suggests positive polarization in certain regions.

New precise measurements do not resolve the discrepancy.

Abstract

The fact that analyses of semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering suggest that the polarized strange quark density $\Delta s(x) + \Delta \bar{s}(x)$ is positive in the measured region of Bjorken x, whereas all analyses of inclusive deep inelastic scattering yield significantly negative values of this quantity, is known as the "strange quark polarization puzzle". We have analyzed the world data on inclusive deep inelastic scattering, including the COMPASS 2010 proton data on the spin asymmetries, and for the first time, the new extremely precise JLab CLAS data on the proton and deuteron spin structure functions. Despite allowing in our parametrization, for a possible sign change, our results confirm that the inclusive data yield significantly negative values for the polarized strange quark density.