Positivity Constraints on Spin Observables in Exclusive Pseudoscalar Meson Photoproduction

Positivity constraints have proved to be important for spin observables of exclusive reactions involving polarized initial and final particles. Attention is focused in this note on the photoproduction of pseudoscalar mesons from spin 1/2 baryons, more specifically gamma+ N -> K+ Lambda, gamma+ N -> K Sigma, for which new experimental data are becoming available.Comment: 3 pages,RevTex, 1 figure, more details on the derivation, refs. added, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Single spin asymmetry in inclusive pion production, Collins effect and the string model

We calculate the single spin asymmetry in the inclusive pion production in proton-proton collisions. We generate the asymmetry at the level of fragmentation function (Collins effect) by the Lund coloured string mechanism. We compare our results with the Fermilab E704 data from polarized proton-proton collisions at 200 GeV. We show that the transversely polarized quark densities at high Bjorken x strongly differ from these predicted by the SU(6) proton wave function.Comment: (11 pages in TeX; 7 figures in PS files available upon request) LYCEN/9423, TPJU 12/9

Positivity domains for pairs of triples of spin observables

Positivity restrains the allowed domains for pairs or triples of spin observables in polarised reactions. Various domain shapes in ${1\over2}+{1\over2}\to{1\over2}+{1\over2}$ reactions are displayed. Some methods to determine these domains are mentioned and a new one based on the anticommutation between two observables is presented.Comment: Talk given by Xavier Artru at "DSPIN-07", XII Workshop on High-Energy Spin Physics, Dubna, Sept. 3-7, 2007, to appear in the Proceeding

Transverse polarization of quark pairs created in string fragmentation

Classical arguments predict that the quark and the antiquark of a pair created during string fragmentation are both transversely polarized in the direction of \hat z \times \vec q_T, where z is the direction of the pull exerted by the string on the antiquark and \vec q_T (-\vec q_T) is the transverse momentum of the quark (antiquark). The existence of this effect at the quantum-mechanical level is investigated by considering two analogous processes involving the tunnel effect in a strong field: (1) dissociation of the positronium atom (2) electron pair creation. In case (1) the positronium is taken in the 3P_0 state to simulate the vacuum quantum numbers J^PC = 0^++. Using the nonrelativistic WKB method, the final electron and positron are indeed found to be transversely polarized along \hat z \times \vec p_T. On the contrary, case (2), treated with the Dirac equation, shows no correlation between transverse polarization and transverse momentum both when the field is uniform and when it depends on z and t. The pair is nevertheless produced in a triplet spin state. The difference between these two results and their relevance to transverse spin asymmetry in inclusive reactions is discussed.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, uses epsfig.sty, to be published in Acta Physica Polonica

The relevance of positivity in spin physics

Positivity reduces substantially the allowed domain for spin observables. We briefly recall some methods used to determine these domains and give some typical examples for exclusive and inclusive spin-dependent reactions.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, Talk presented at CIPANP 2009, San Diego California, USA, May 26-31, 2009 To be published in AIP Conference Proceeding

Interference Fragmentation Functions and the Nucleon's Transversity

We introduce twist-two quark interference fragmentation functions in helicity density matrix formalism and study their physical implications. We show how the nucleon's transversity distribution can be probed through the final state interaction between two mesons ($\pi^+\pi^-$, $K\bar K$, or $\pi K$) produced in the current fragmentation region in deep inelastic scattering on a transversely polarized nucleon.Comment: Final version to be published in Phys. Rev. Let

Effects of Quark Spin Flip on the Collins Fragmentation Function in a Toy Model

The recent extension of the NJL-jet model to hadronization of transversely polarized quarks allowed the study of the Collins fragmentation function. Both favored and unfavored Collins fragmentation functions were generated, the latter purely by multiple hadron emissions, with 1/2 moments of opposite sign in the region of the light-cone momentum fraction $z$ accessible in current experiments. Hints of such behavior has been seen in the measurements in several experiments. Also, in the transverse momentum dependent (TMD) hadron emission probabilities, modulations of up to fourth order in sine of the polar angle were observed, while the Collins effect describes just the linear modulations. A crucial part of the extended model was the calculation of the quark spin flip probability after each hadron emission in the jet. Here we study the effects of this probability on the resulting unfavored and favored Collins functions by setting it as a constant and use a toy model for the elementary single hadron emission probabilities. The results of the Monte Carlo simulations showed that preferential quark spin flip in the elementary hadron emission is needed to generate the favored and unfavored Collins functions with opposite sign 1/2 moments. For the TMD hadron emission modulations, we showed that the model quark spin flip probabilities are a partial source of the higher rode modulations, while the other source is the Collins modulation of the remnant quark from the hadron emission recoil.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures. To appear in proceedings of HITES 2012, Conference in Honor of Jerry P. Draayer, Horizons of Innovative Theories, Experiments, and Supercomputing in Nuclear Physics, New Orleans, Louisiana, June 4-7, 201

Monte-Carlo simulation of events with Drell-Yan lepton pairs from antiproton-proton collisions

The complete knowledge of the nucleon spin structure at leading twist requires also addressing the transverse spin distribution of quarks, or transversity, which is yet unexplored because of its chiral-odd nature. Transversity can be best extracted from single-spin asymmetries in fully polarized Drell-Yan processes with antiprotons, where valence contributions are involved anyway. Alternatively, in single-polarized Drell-Yan the transversity happens convoluted with another chiral-odd function, which is likely to be responsible for the well known (and yet unexplained) violation of the Lam-Tung sum rule in the corresponding unpolarized cross section. We present Monte-Carlo simulations for the unpolarized and single-polarized Drell-Yan $\bar{p} p^{(\uparrow)} \to \mu^+ \mu^- X$ at different center-of-mass energies in both configurations where the antiproton beam hits a fixed proton target or it collides on another proton beam. The goal is to estimate the minimum number of events needed to extract the above chiral-odd distributions from future measurements at the HESR ring at GSI. It is important to study the feasibility of such experiments at HESR in order to demonstrate that interesting spin physics can be explored already using unpolarized antiprotons.Comment: Deeply revised text with improved discussion of kinematics and results; added one table; 12 figures. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.