Comprehensive review paper on the theory and phenomenology of polarized deep inelastic scattering, to appear in Physics ReportsComment: 113 pages, latex, 40 figures not included (hard copies available via mail upon request to anselmino@to.infn.it

No abstract

The Sivers parton distribution function has been predicted to obey a particular "universality relation", namely to have opposite sign in semi-inclusive deeply inelastic scattering (SIDIS) and the Drell-Yan process. We discuss how, on the basis of present HERMES data, this remarkable prediction of the QCD factorization approach to the description of single spin asymmetries related to the Sivers effect could be checked experimentally in future experiments at PAX and COMPASS.

We present results for all leading-twist azimuthal spin asymmetries in semi-inclusive lepton-nucleon deep-inelastic scattering due to T-even transverse-momentum dependent parton distribution functions on the basis of a light-cone constituent quark model. Attention is paid to discuss the range of applicability of the model, especially with regard to the scale dependence of the observables and the transverse-momentum dependence of the distributions. We find good agreement with available experimental data and present predictions to be further tested by future CLAS, COMPASS and HERMES data.Comment: 23 pages, 14 figures, 1 tabl

The Sivers function is extracted from HERMES data on single spin asymmetries in semi-inclusive deeply inelastic scattering. Our analysis use a simple Gaussian model for the distribution of transverse parton momenta, together with the flavor dependence given by the leading 1/Nc approximation and a neglect of the Sivers antiquark distribution. We find that within the errors of the data these approximations are sufficient.

1 Previously, the preliminary result [15] and longitudinal target SSA [28][29][30][31] data were used to extract H ⊥ 1 from SIDIS [32,33]. However, in these studies twist-3 effects [34] were not or only partially considered. Still earlier attempts to learn about the Collins effect from SSA in the hadronic processespp ↑ or pp ↑ → πX [35] were made in [36], but recent studies indicate that the Collins effect is not likely to be the dominant source of SSA in these processes [37] as it was assumed in [36].

The first measurement of transverse-spin-dependent azimuthal asymmetries in the pion-induced Drell-Yan (DY) process is reported. We use the CERN SPS 190  GeV/c π^{-} beam and a transversely polarized ammonia target. Three azimuthal asymmetries giving access to different transverse-momentum-dependent (TMD) parton distribution functions (PDFs) are extracted using dimuon events with invariant mass between 4.3  GeV/c^{2} and 8.5  GeV/c^{2}. Within the experimental uncertainties, the observed sign of the Sivers asymmetry is found to be consistent with the fundamental prediction of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) that the Sivers TMD PDFs extracted from DY have a sign opposite to the one extracted from semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering (SIDIS) data. We present two other asymmetries originating from the pion Boer-Mulders TMD PDFs convoluted with either the nucleon transversity or pretzelosity TMD PDFs. A recent COMPASS SIDIS measurement was obtained at a hard scale comparable to that of these DY results. This opens the way for possible tests of fundamental QCD universality predictions.

The COMPASS Collaboration at CERN has measured the transverse spin azimuthal asymmetry of\ud charged hadrons produced in semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering using a 160 GeV μ+ beam and a\ud transversely polarised NH3 target. The Sivers asymmetry of the proton has been extracted in the Bjorken\ud x range 0.003 < x < 0.7. The new measurements have small statistical and systematic uncertainties of\ud a few percent and confirm with considerably better accuracy the previous COMPASS measurement. The\ud Sivers asymmetry is found to be compatible with zero for negative hadrons and positive for positive\ud hadrons, a clear indication of a spin–orbit coupling of quarks in a transversely polarised proton. As\ud compared to measurements at lower energy, a smaller Sivers asymmetry for positive hadrons is found\ud in the region x > 0.03. The asymmetry is different from zero and positive also in the low x region,\ud where sea-quarks dominate. The kinematic dependence of the asymmetry has also been investigated and\ud results are given for various intervals of hadron and virtual photon fractional energy. In contrast to the\ud case of the Collins asymmetry, the results on the Sivers asymmetry suggest a strong dependence on the\ud four-momentum transfer to the nucleon, in agreement with the most recent calculations