Polarized deep--inelastic scattering data on longitudinally polarized hydrogen and deuterium targets have been used to determine double spin asymmetries of cross sections. Inclusive and ...semi--inclusive asymmetries for the production of positive and negative pions from hydrogen were obtained in a re--analysis of previously published data. Inclusive and semi--inclusive asymmetries for the production of negative and positive pions and kaons were measured on a polarized deuterium target. The separate helicity densities for the up and down quarks and the anti--up, anti--down, and strange sea quarks were computed from these asymmetries in a ``leading order QCD analysis. The polarization of the up--quark is positive and that of the down--quark is negative. All extracted sea quark polarizations are consistent with zero, and the light quark sea helicity densities are flavor symmetric within the experimental uncertainties. First and second moments of the extracted quark helicity densities in the measured range are consistent with fits of inclusive data.
Single-spin asymmetries for semi-inclusive electroproduction of charged pions in deep-inelastic scattering of positrons are measured for the first time with transverse target polarization. The ...asymmetry depends on the azimuthal angles of both the pion ($\phi$) and the target spin axis ($\phi_S$) about the virtual photon direction and relative to the lepton scattering plane. The extracted Fourier component $\pi$ is a signal of the previously unmeasured quark transversity distribution, in conjunction with the so-called Collins fragmentation function, also unknown. The Fourier component $\pi$ of the asymmetry arises from a correlation between the transverse polarization of the target nucleon and the intrinsic transverse momentum of quarks, as represented by the previously unmeasured Sivers distribution function. Evidence for both signals is observed, but the Sivers asymmetry may be affected by exclusive vector meson production
A search for an exotic baryon resonance with $S=-2, Q=-2$ has been performed in quasi-real photoproduction on a deuterium target through the decay channel $\Xi^- \pi^- \to \Lambda \pi^- \pi^- \to p ...\pi^- \pi^- \pi^-$. No evidence for a previously reported $\Xi^{--}(1860)$ resonance is found in the $\Xi^- \pi^-$invariant mass spectrum. An upper limit for the photoproduction cross section of 2.1 nb is found at the 90% confidence level. The photoproduction cross section for the $\Xi^{0}(1530)$ is found to be between 9 and 24 nb.
Double-spin asymmetries of semi-inclusive cross sections for the production of identified pions and kaons have been measured in deep-inelastic scattering of polarized positrons on a polarized ...deuterium target. Five helicity distributions including those for three sea quark flavors were extracted from these data together with re-analyzed previous data for identified pions from a hydrogen target. These distributions are consistent with zero for all three sea flavors. A recently predicted flavor asymmetry in the polarization of the light quark sea appears to be disfavored by the data.
The beam-spin asymmetry in hard electroproduction of photons has been measured for the first time. The data have been accumulated by the HERMES experiment at DESY using the HERA 27.6 GeV ...longitudinally polarized positron beam and an unpolarized hydrogen gas target. The asymmetry in the azimuthal distribution of the produced photons in the angle phi relative to the lepton scattering plane was determined with respect to the helicity state of the incoming positron beam. The beam-spin analyzing power in the sin(phi) moment was measured to be -0.23 +/- 0.04(stat) +/- 0.03(syst) in the missing-mass range below 1.7 GeV. The observed asymmetry is attributed to the interference of the Bethe-Heitler and deeply-virtual Compton scattering processes.
A single-spin asymmetry in the azimuthal distribution of neutral pions relative to the lepton scattering plane has been measured for the first time in deep-inelastic scattering of positrons off ...longitudinally polarized protons. The analysing power in the sin(phi) moment of the cross section is 0.019 +/- 0.007(stat.) +/- 0.003(syst.). This result is compared to single-spin asymmetries for charged pion production measured in the same kinematic range. The pi^0 asymmetry is of the same size as the pi^+ asymmetry and shows a similar dependence on the relevant kinematic variables. The asymmetry is described by a phenomenological calculation based on a fragmentation function that represents sensitivity to the transverse polarization of the struck quark.
We have measured the multiplicity of charm quark pairs arising from gluon splitting in a sample of about 3.5 million hadronic Z
0 decays. By selecting a 3-jet event topology and tagging charmed ...hadrons in the lowest energy jet using leptons, we established a signature of heavy quark pair production from gluons. The average number of gluons splitting into a c
c
pair per hadronic event was measured to be
n
g→c
c
=(2.27±0.28±0.41) × 10
−2
.
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