Fragmentation of transversely polarized quarks probed in transverse momentum distributions

John Collins

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1104 Scopus citations

Abstract

It is shown that the azimuthal dependence of the distribution of hadrons in a quark jet is a probe of the transverse spin of the quark initiating the jet. This results in a new spin-dependent fragmentation function that acts at the twist-2 level. One example of a process where it contributes is semi-inclusive deeply inelastic scattering with a transversely polarized nucleon target but with an unpolarized electron beam. This process is treated in detail. Another process in the cross section for singly polarized hadron-hadron scattering when two high-p hadrons are measured in the final state and are close to back-to-back in azimuth. The new fragmentation function is sensitive to the coupling of the fragmentation process to (spontaneous) chiral symmetry breaking.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)161-182
Number of pages22
JournalNuclear Physics, Section B
Volume396
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - May 10 1993

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Nuclear and High Energy Physics

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Fragmentation of transversely polarized quarks probed in transverse momentum distributions'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this