Recent COMPASS results on Transverse Spin Asymmetries in SIDIS

After reviewing the most important COMPASS results on transverse spin effects in SIDIS, I will present the recent work we have done on weighted Sivers asymmetries and "transversity induced" $\Lambda$ polarisation. Using the high statistics data collected in 2010 on a transversely polarised proton target COMPASS has evaluated the transverse momentum weighted Sivers asymmetries both in $x$- and in $z$-bins. The results are also compared with the standard unweighted asymmetries. Using the whole data sample collected over the years on transversely polarised deuteron and proton targets COMPASS has measured the transversity induced $\Lambda$ polarisation in the reaction $\mu N \rightarrow \mu' \Lambda X$. Possible future SIDIS COMPASS measurements will also be briefly mentioned.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, proceedings of the XVII Workshop on High Energy spin Physics DSPIN-17 Dubna, Russia, September 11 - 15, 201

The future SIDIS measurement on transversely polarized deuterons by the COMPASS Collaboration

Since 2005, measurements of Collins and Sivers asymmetries from the HERMES and COMPASS experiments have allowed to assess that the transversity and the Sivers PDFs are different from zero and measurable in semi-inclusive DIS on transversely polarised targets. Most of the data were collected on proton targets, only small event samples were collected in the early phase of the COMPASS experiment on a deuteron ($^6$LiD) target and more recently at JLab, on $^3$He, so that the $d$-quark and the sea-quarks PDFs are much more poorly known than the $u$-quark PDFs. This constitutes an important limitation to the knowledge of the transverse spin structure of the nucleon. For this reason the COMPASS Collaboration has proposed to measure semi-inclusive DIS on transversely polarised deuterons with good accuracy, comparable with that of the existing transverse spin asymmetry data on protons. The proposal has been accepted by CERN and the experiment will run in 2021, as soon as the Long Shut-down 2 is over, providing measurements which will stay unique for many years to come. Projections will be given for the extraction of the transversity PDFs, and for the evaluation of the isovector tensor charge of the nucleon.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure and 2 table

Work on the interplay among h+h^+, h−h^{-} and hadron pair transverse spin asymmetries in SIDIS

In the fragmentation of a transversely polarized quark a left-right asymmetry, the Collins asymmetry, is expected for each hadron produced in the process $\mu N \rightarrow \mu ' h^{+} h^{-} X$. Similarly, an asymmetry is also expected for the hadron pair, the dihadron asymmetry. Both asymmetries have been measured to be different from zero on transversely polarised proton targets and have allowed for first extractions of the transversity distributions. From the high statistics COMPASS data we have further investigated these asymmetries getting strong indications that the two mechanisms are driven by a common physical process.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Transverse spin and transverse momentum structure of the nucleon from the COMPASS experiment

A selection is presented of recent results from the COMPASS Collaboration on transverse spin and transverse momentum effects in semi-inclusive deeply inelastic scattering (SIDIS) of 160 GeV/c muons off proton and deuteron targets.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, proceedings of the invited talk at the XV Workshop on High Energy Spin Physics DSPIN-13, Dubna, Russia, October 8-12, 201

Single hadron transverse spin asymmetries from COMPASS

Transverse spin physics is an important part of the scientific programme of the COMPASS experiment at CERN. The analysis of the data taken with the target polarized orthogonally to the 160 GeV/c muon beam momentum has allowed to measure for the first time the Collins and Sivers asymmetries of the deuteron. Both for the positive and the negative hadrons produced in semi-inclusive DIS the measured asymmetries are small and, within errors, compatible with zero. New results for charged pions and kaons are presented here.Comment: To be published in Proceedings of 17th International Spin Physics Symposium (SPIN06), 2-7 October 2006, Kyoto, Japa

Why there is no crisis of the "spin crisis"

In a recent eprint [1] it is argued that the experimental determinations of the spin-dependent structure function g1 have been done incorrectly and that a reanalysis of those data suggests that the original motivation to argue fora "spin crisis", namely the small contribution of quark spins to the nucleon spin, is invalid. In a subsequent note [2] the theoretical understanding, as it has evolved from almost 30 years of theoretical and experimental scrutiny, has been shortly summarised. In this short note, arguments are presented that the line of reasoning in Ref. [1] does not apply, at least not for the Compass data.Comment: 2 pages, no figure

Transverse-Spin and Transverse-Momentum Effects in High-Energy Processes

The state of the art concerning transverse-spin and transverse-momentum phenomena in hard hadronic reactions is reviewed. An account is given of single-spin and azimuthal asymmetries in semiinclusive deep inelastic scattering, e^+ e^- annihilation, Drell-Yan production, and hadroproduction. The ongoing experiments and the main theoretical frameworks are described in the first part of the paper. The second part is devoted to the experimental findings and their phenomenological interpretations. A brief discussion of the perspectives of future measurements is finally presented.Comment: 95 page

Extracting the transversity distributions from single-hadron and dihadron production

We present a point-by-point determination of the valence transversity distributions from two different types of processes: single-hadron production and dihadron production, both in semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering and e+e- annihilation. The extraction is based on some simple assumptions and does not require any parametrization. The transversity distributions obtained from Collins effect in single-hadron production and from interference effects in dihadron production are found to be compatible with each other.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures; added reference

The spin structure of the nucleon: A phenomenological introduction

Abstract The investigation of the spin structure of the nucleon via semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering on polarised nucleons is updated with the most recent results of the JLab, HERMES, and COMPASS experiments. A short description is given of these experiments, which are complementary in phase space and use sophisticated and different techniques to polarise the nucleon targets. The cases of target spin parallel or orthogonal to the direction of the incoming lepton require different experimental techniques, have a different phenomenology and need a different theoretical treatment. After reviewing these differences, the most recent transverse spin advances are presented, and evidence is given that the new data already allow for a rather precise extraction of the transversity and of the Sivers PDFs