Accessing directly the strange quark content of the proton at HERA

Abstract

We investigate a double-spin asymmetry for the semi-inclusive $\Lambda$ hyperon production in the longitudinally deep inelastic lepton-proton scattering, the sign of which can provide us with important information about the strange quark helicity distribution in the proton.On the basis of the interpretation of the longitudinal deep inelastic lepton-nucleon scattering data as a negative strange quark polarization in the proton and the preliminary results on the measurement of the longitudinal $\Lambda$ polarization at the $Z$ resonance in electron-positron annihilation,we predict a minus sign for the suggested observable. The experimental condition required for our suggestion is met by the HERA facilities, so the asymmetry considered can be measured by the HERMES experiments at HERA in the near future.

10 pages, Revtex, completely rephrased, references added

References in corpus (8)

• The theory and phenomenology of polarized deep inelastic scattering
• Measurement of the Spin-Dependent Structure Function $g_1(x)$ of the Proton
• Abundant phi-Meson Production in pbar-p Annihilation at Rest and Strangeness in the Nucleon
• Novel Quark Fragmentation Functions and the Nucleon's Transversity Distribution
• Polarized $q\to \Lambda$ Fragmentation Functions from $e^{+}{e}^{-}\to \Lambda +X^{\ast }$
• Chiral-Odd and Spin-Dependent Quark Fragmentation Functions and their Applications
• THE PROTON SPIN PUZZLE AND DEPOLARIZATION IN $\bar{p}p\to \bar{\Lambda }\Lambda$
• The strange quark spin of the proton in semi-inclusive $\Lambda$ leptoproduction

Cited by in corpus (15)

• QCD Analysis of Unpolarized and Polarized Lambda - Baryon Production in Leading and Next-to-Leading Order
• Spin Physics and Polarized Structure Functions
• Polarized Lambdas in the Current Fragmentation Region
• Next-to-Leading Order Evolution of Polarized and Unpolarized Fragmentation Functions
• Spin content of Lambda and its longitudinal polarization in $e^{+}{e}^{-}$ annihilation at high energies
• Quark Structure of $\Lambda$ from $\Lambda$-Polarization in Z Decays
• The Flavor and Spin Structure of Hyperons from Quark Fragmentation
• Quark Flavor Separation in $\Lambda$-Baryon Fragmentation
• The Quark Orbital Angular Momentum in a Light-Cone Representation
• Quark Distributions of Octet Baryons from SU(3) Symmetry
• Structure and Production of Lambda Baryons
• New Sum Rules for Nucleon Tensor Charges
• The Quark-Antiquark Asymmetry of the Nucleon Sea from $\Lambda$ and $\bar{\Lambda }$ Fragmentation
• $q\to \Lambda$ Fragmentation Function and Nucleon Transversity Distribution in a Diquark Model
• Quark Fragmentation Functions in a Diquark Model for $\Lambda$ Production