Can the polarization of the strange quarks in the proton be positive ?

Abstract

Recently, the HERMES Collaboration at DESY, using a leading order QCD analysis of their data on semi-inclusive deep inelastic production of charged hadrons, reported a marginally positive polarization for the strange quarks in the proton. We argue that a non-negative polarization is almost impossible.

6 pages, latex, minor changes in the discussion after Eq. (9)