30 research outputs found
Performance of the Electromagnetic Calorimeter of the HERMES Experiment
The performance of the electromagnetic calorimeter of the HERMES experiment
is described. The calorimeter consists of 840 radiation resistant F101
lead-glass counters. The response to positrons up to 27.5 GeV, the comparison
between the measured energy and the momentum reconstructed from tracking,
long-term stability, hadron rejection and neutral meson invariant mass
reconstruction are shown.Comment: 22 pages, 13 figures, LaTeX, accepted by NI
Measurement of Angular Distributions and R= sigma_L/sigma_T in Diffractive Electroproduction of rho^0 Mesons
Production and decay angular distributions were extracted from measurements
of exclusive electroproduction of the rho^0(770) meson over a range in the
virtual photon negative four-momentum squared 0.5< Q^2 <4 GeV^2 and the
photon-nucleon invariant mass range 3.8< W <6.5 GeV. The experiment was
performed with the HERMES spectrometer, using a longitudinally polarized
positron beam and a ^3He gas target internal to the HERA e^{+-} storage ring.
The event sample combines rho^0 mesons produced incoherently off individual
nucleons and coherently off the nucleus as a whole. The distributions in one
production angle and two angles describing the rho^0 -> pi+ pi- decay yielded
measurements of eight elements of the spin-density matrix, including one that
had not been measured before. The results are consistent with the dominance of
helicity-conserving amplitudes and natural parity exchange. The improved
precision achieved at 47 GeV,
reveals evidence for an energy dependence in the ratio R of the longitudinal to
transverse cross sections at constant Q^2.Comment: 15 pages, 15 embedded figures, LaTeX for SVJour(epj) document class
Revision: Fig. 15 corrected, recent data added to Figs. 10,12,14,15; minor
changes to tex
The Flavor Asymmetry of the Light Quark Sea from Semi-inclusive Deep-inelastic Scattering
The flavor asymmetry of the light quark sea of the nucleon is determined in
the kinematic range 0.02<x<0.3 and 1 GeV^2<Q^2<10 GeV^2, for the first time
from semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering. The quantity
(dbar(x)-ubar(x))/(u(x)-d(x)) is derived from a relationship between the yields
of positive and negative pions from unpolarized hydrogen and deuterium targets.
The flavor asymmetry dbar-ubar is found to be non-zero and x dependent, showing
an excess of dbar over ubar quarks in the proton.Comment: 7 Pages, 2 figures, RevTeX format; slight revision in text, small
change in extraction of dbar-ubar and comparison with a high q2
parameterizatio
Beam-Induced Nuclear Depolarisation in a Gaseous Polarised Hydrogen Target
Spin-polarised atomic hydrogen is used as a gaseous polarised proton target
in high energy and nuclear physics experiments operating with internal beams in
storage rings. When such beams are intense and bunched, this type of target can
be depolarised by a resonant interaction with the transient magnetic field
generated by the beam bunches. This effect has been studied with the HERA
positron beam in the HERMES experiment at DESY. Resonances have been observed
and a simple analytic model has been used to explain their shape and position.
Operating conditions for the experiment have been found where there is no
significant target depolarisation due to this effect.Comment: REVTEX, 6 pages, 5 figure
Observation of a Single-Spin Azimuthal Asymmetry in Semi-Inclusive Pion Electro-Production
Single-spin asymmetries for semi-inclusive pion production in deep-inelastic
scattering have been measured for the first time. A significant target-spin
asymmetry of the distribution in the azimuthal angle phi of the pion relative
to the lepton scattering plane was observed for pi+ electro-production on a
longitudinally polarized hydrogen target. The corresponding analyzing power in
the sin(phi) moment of the cross section is 0.022 +/- 0.005 +/- 0.003. This
result can be interpreted as the effect of terms in the cross section involving
chiral-odd spin distribution functions in combination with a time-reversal-odd
fragmentation function that is sensitive to the transverse polarization of the
fragmenting quark.Comment: 5 pages of RevTex, 3 ps figures, 2 table
Measurement of Longitudinal Spin Transfer to Lambda Hyperons in Deep-Inelastic Lepton Scattering
Spin transfer in deep-inelastic Lambda electroproduction has been studied
with the HERMES detector using the 27.6 GeV polarized positron beam in the HERA
storage ring. For an average fractional energy transfer = 0.45, the
longitudinal spin transfer from the virtual photon to the Lambda has been
extracted. The spin transfer along the Lambda momentum direction is found to be
0.11 +/- 0.17 (stat) +/- 0.03 (sys); similar values are found for other
possible choices for the longitudinal spin direction of the Lambda. This result
is the most precise value obtained to date from deep-inelastic scattering with
charged lepton beams, and is sensitive to polarized up quark fragmentation to
hyperon states. The experimental result is found to be in general agreement
with various models of the Lambda spin content, and is consistent with the
assumption of helicity conservation in the fragmentation process.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures; new version has an expanded discussion and small
format change
Determination of the Deep Inelastic Contribution to the Generalised Gerasimov-Drell-Hearn Integral for the Proton and Neutron
The virtual photon absorption cross section differences [sigma_1/2-sigma_3/2]
for the proton and neutron have been determined from measurements of polarised
cross section asymmetries in deep inelastic scattering of 27.5 GeV
longitudinally polarised positrons from polarised 1H and 3He internal gas
targets. The data were collected in the region above the nucleon resonances in
the kinematic range nu < 23.5 GeV and 0.8 GeV**2 < Q**2 < 12 GeV**2. For the
proton the contribution to the generalised Gerasimov-Drell-Hearn integral was
found to be substantial and must be included for an accurate determination of
the full integral. Furthermore the data are consistent with a QCD
next-to-leading order fit based on previous deep inelastic scattering data.
Therefore higher twist effects do not appear significant.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, revte
Observation of a Coherence Length Effect in Exclusive Rho^0 Electroproduction
Exclusive incoherent electroproduction of the rho^0(770) meson from 1H, 2H,
3He, and 14N targets has been studied by the HERMES experiment at squared
four-momentum transfer Q**2>0.4 GeV**2 and positron energy loss nu from 9 to 20
GeV. The ratio of the 14N to 1H cross sections per nucleon, known as the
nuclear transparency, was found to decrease with increasing coherence length of
quark-antiquark fluctuations of the virtual photon. The data provide clear
evidence of the interaction of the quark- antiquark fluctuations with the
nuclear medium.Comment: RevTeX, 5 pages, 3 figure
Measurement of the Neutron Spin Structure Function with a Polarized ^3He Target
Results are reported from the HERMES experiment at HERA on a measurement of
the neutron spin structure function in deep inelastic scattering
using 27.5 GeV longitudinally polarized positrons incident on a polarized
He internal gas target. The data cover the kinematic range
and . The integral evaluated at a fixed of is . Assuming Regge behavior at low , the first
moment is .Comment: 4 pages TEX, text available at
http://www.krl.caltech.edu/preprints/OAP.htm
Flavor Decomposition of the Polarized Quark Distributions in the Nucleon from Inclusive and Semi-inclusive Deep-inelastic Scattering
Spin asymmetries of semi-inclusive cross sections for the production of
positively and negatively charged hadrons have been measured in deep-inelastic
scattering of polarized positrons on polarized hydrogen and 3He targets, in the
kinematic range 0.023<x<0.6 and 1 GeV^2<Q^2<10 GeV^2. Polarized quark
distributions are extracted as a function of x for up $(u+u_bar) and down
(d+d_bar) flavors. The up quark polarization is positive and the down quark
polarization is negative in the measured range. The polarization of the sea is
compatible with zero. The first moments of the polarized quark distributions
are presented. The isospin non-singlet combination Delta_q_3 is consistent with
the prediction based on the Bjorken sum rule. The moments of the polarized
quark distributions are compared to predictions based on SU(3)_f flavor
symmetry and to a prediction from lattice QCD.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures (eps format), 10 tables in Latex New version
contains tables of asymmetries and correlation matri