Polarised Quark Distributions in the Nucleon from Semi-Inclusive Spin Asymmetries

TL;DR

This paper measures semi-inclusive spin asymmetries in deep inelastic scattering to extract polarised quark distributions in the nucleon, providing new insights into valence and sea quark polarizations with improved statistical precision.

Contribution

It presents the first detailed extraction of valence and sea quark polarizations from semi-inclusive asymmetries with reduced statistical errors and new moment calculations.

Findings

Polarised u valence quark distribution is positive and increases with x.

Polarised d valence quark distribution is negative.

Non-strange sea quark polarization is consistent with zero.

Abstract

We present a measurement of semi-inclusive spin asymmetries for positively and negatively charged hadrons from deep inelastic scattering of polarised muons on polarised protons and deuterons in the range $0.003<x<0.7$ and $Q^2>$1 GeV$^2$. Compared to our previous publication on this subject, with the new data the statistical errors have been reduced by nearly a factor of two. From these asymmetries and our inclusive spin asymmetries we determine the polarised quark distributions of valence quarks and non-strange sea quarks at $Q^2$=10 GeV$^2$. The polarised $u$ valence quark distribution, $\Delta u_v(x)$, is positive and the polarisation increases with $x$. The polarised $d$ valence quark distribution, $\Delta d_v(x)$, is negative and the non-strange sea distribution, $\Delta \bar q(x)$, is consistent with zero over the measured range of $x$. We find for the first moments $\int_0^1 \Delta u_v(x) dx = 0.77 \pm 0.10 \pm 0.08$, $\int_0^1 \Delta d_v(x) dx = -0.52 \pm 0.14 \pm 0.09$ and $\int_0^1 \Delta \bar q(x) dx= 0.01 \pm 0.04 \pm 0.03$, where we assumed $\Delta \bar u(x) = \Delta \bar d(x)$. We also determine for the first time the second moments of the valence distributions $\int_0^1 x \Delta q_v(x) dx$.