The Spin Structure of the Nucleon
A. Deur, S. J. Brodsky, G. F. de Teramond

TL;DR
This paper reviews the current understanding of nucleon spin structure, highlighting experimental and theoretical advances in probing QCD through polarized scattering and the complex contributions to nucleon spin.
Contribution
It synthesizes recent developments in nucleon spin research, including the roles of quark orbital angular momentum, gluons, and sea quarks, and discusses new tools like GPDs and TMDs.
Findings
Nucleon spin involves quark, gluon, and orbital contributions.
Experimental evidence challenged initial quark spin dominance assumptions.
Advances in GPDs and TMDs provide deeper insights into nucleon structure.
Abstract
We review the present understanding of the spin structure of protons and neutrons, the fundamental building blocks of nuclei collectively known as nucleons. The field of nucleon spin provides a critical window for testing Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD), the gauge theory of the strong interactions since it involves fundamental aspects of hadron structure, and it can be probed in detail in experiments, particularly deep inelastic lepton scattering on polarized targets. QCD was initially probed in high energy deep inelastic lepton scattering with unpolarized beams and targets. With time, interest shifted from testing perturbative QCD to illuminating the nucleon structure itself. In fact, the spin degrees of freedom of hadrons provide an essential and detailed verification of both perturbative and nonperturbative QCD dynamics. Nucleon spin was initially thought of coming mostly from the spin…
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Taxonomy
TopicsQuantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions · Superconducting Materials and Applications · Particle Accelerators and Free-Electron Lasers
