Transverse spin structure of the nucleon through target single-spin asymmetry in semi-inclusive deep-inelastic (e, e^'π^±) reaction at Jefferson Lab

Abstract

Jefferson Lab (JLab) 12 GeV energy upgrade provides a golden opportunity to perform precision studies of the transverse spin and transverse-momentum-dependent structure in the valence quark region for both the proton and the neutron. In this paper, we focus our discussion on a recently approved experiment on the neutron as an example of the precision studies planned at JLab. The new experiment will perform precision measurements of target Single-Spin Asymmetries (SSA) from semi-inclusive electro-production of charged pions from a 40 cm long transversely polarized ^3He target in deep-inelastic-scattering kinematics using 11 and 8.8 GeV electron beams. This new coincidence experiment in Hall A will employ a newly proposed solenoid spectrometer (SoLID). The large acceptance spectrometer and the high polarized luminosity will provide precise 4D (x , z , PT and Q^2) data on the Collins, Sivers, and pretzelosity asymmetries for the neutron through the azimuthal angular dependence. The full 2π azimuthal angular coverage in the lab is essential in controlling the systematic uncertainties. The results from this experiment, when combined with the proton Collins asymmetry measurement and the Collins fragmentation function determined from the e^+e^- collision data, will allow for a quark flavor separation in order to achieve a determination of the tensor charge of the d quark to a 10% accuracy. The extracted Sivers and pretzelosity asymmetries will provide important information to understand the correlations between the quark orbital angular momentum and the nucleon spin and between the quark spin and nucleon spin.