Neutron spin structure from polarized deuteron DIS with proton tagging

Abstract

Polarized electron-deuteron deep-inelastic scattering (DIS) with detection of the spectator proton ("tagged DIS") enables measurements of neutron spin structure with maximal control of nuclear effects. We calculate the longitudinal spin asymmetries in polarized tagged DIS using methods of light-front nuclear structure and study their dependence on the measured proton momentum. Asymmetries can be formed with all three deuteron spin states ($\pm 1,0$) or the two maximum-spin states only ($\pm 1$, involving tensor polarization). The proton momentum dependence can be used to select pure S-wave configurations in the deuteron and eliminate D-wave depolarization (transverse momenta $p_{pT}\lesssim$ 100 MeV). Free neutron spin structure can be extracted model-independently through pole extrapolation of the tagged asymmetries. Such measurements could be performed at a future electron-ion collider (EIC) with polarized deuteron beams and forward proton detectors.

7 pages, 3 figures. Revised published version; minor additions in the text

References in corpus (5)

• Spin Structure of the Nucleon - Status and Recent Results
• Electron-deuteron deep-inelastic scattering with spectator nucleon tagging and final-state interactions at intermediate x
• Neutron spin structure with polarized deuterons and spectator proton tagging at EIC
• Nuclear final-state interactions in deep inelastic scattering off the lightest nuclei
• Tagged EMC Measurements on Light Nuclei

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Precision Studies of QCD in the Low Energy Domain of the EIC
• The Present and Future of QCD
• Polarized electron-deuteron deep-inelastic scattering with spectator nucleon tagging
• Deep-inelastic electron-deuteron scattering with spectator nucleon tagging at the electron-ion collider. Extracting free nucleon structure
• Polarization options in inclusive DIS off tensor polarized deuteron
• Neutron Spin Structure from e-3He Scattering with Double Spectator Tagging at the Electron-Ion Collider