Diffraction driven steep rise of spin structure function $g_{LT}=g_{1}+g_{2}$ at small x and DIS sum rules

TL;DR

This paper predicts a steep small-x rise in the spin structure function $g_{LT}$ driven by diffraction, challenging existing sum rules and surpassing conventional expectations based on the Wandzura-Wilczek relation.

Contribution

It introduces a unitarity-based mechanism linking diffraction to the small-x behavior of $g_{LT}$, revealing a steeper rise than previously assumed.

Findings

$g_{LT}(x,Q^{2})$ rises as $(1/x)^{2(1+ ext{small-}x ext{ exponent})}$ at small x

The rise invalidates the Burkhardt-Cottingham sum rule

Diffraction-driven $g_{LT}$ exceeds Wandzura-Wilczek predictions

Abstract

We derive a unitarity relationship between the spin structure function $g_{LT}(x,Q^{2})=g_{1}(x,Q^{2})+g_{2}(x,Q^{2})$, the LT interference diffractive structure function and the spin-flip coupling of the pomeron to nucleons. Our diffractive mechanism gives rise to a dramatic small-$x$ rise $g_{LT}(x,Q^{2}) \sim g^{2}(x,\bar{Q}^{2}) \sim (1/x)^{2(1+\delta_{g})}$, where $\delta_{g}$ is an exponent of small-$x$ rise of the unpolarized gluon density in the proton $g(x,\bar{Q}^{2})$ at a moderate hard scale $\bar{Q}^{2}$ for light flavour contribution and large hard scale $\bar{Q}^{2} \sim m_{f}^{2}$ for heavy flavour contribution. It invalidates the Burkhardt-Cottingham sum rule. The found small-$x$ rise of diffraction driven $g_{LT}(x,Q^{2})$ is steeper than given by the Wandzura-Wilczek relation under conventional assumptions on small-$x$ behaviour of $g_{1}(x,Q^{2})$.