We report the first measurement of target single spin asymmetries of charged kaons produced in semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering of electrons off a transversely polarized $^3{\rm{He}}$ target. Both the Collins and Sivers moments, which are related to the nucleon transversity and Sivers distributions, respectively, are extracted over the kinematic range of 0.1$<$$x_{bj}$$<$0.4 for $K^{+}$ and $K^{-}$ production. While the Collins and Sivers moments for $K^{+}$ are consistent with zero within the experimental uncertainties, both moments for $K^{-}$ favor negative values. The Sivers moments are compared to the theoretical prediction from a phenomenological fit to the world data. While the $K^{+}$ Sivers moments are consistent with the prediction, the $K^{-}$ results differ from the prediction at the 2-sigma level.
The Collins and Sivers moments for K+.
The Collins and Sivers moments for K-.
Compton scattering from the proton was investigated at s=6.9 (GeV/c)**2 and \t=-4.0 (GeV/c)**2 via polarization transfer from circularly polarized incident photons. The longitudinal and transverse components of the recoil proton polarization were measured. The results are in excellent agreement with a prediction based on a reaction mechanism in which the photon interacts with a single quark carrying the spin of the proton and in disagreement with a prediction of pQCD based on a two-gluon exchange mechanism.
Polarization transfer parameters.
Forum