An investigation of the spin structure of the proton in deep inelastic scattering of polarised muons and polarised protons
- The spin asymmetry in deep inelastic scattering of longitudinally polarised muons by longitudinally polarised protons has been measured in the range 0.01<×<0.7. The spin dependent structure function g1(x) for the proton has been determined and, combining the data with earlier SLAC measurements, its integral over x found to be 0.126±0.010(stat.)±0.015(syst.), in disagreement with the Ellis-Jaffe sum rule. Assuming the validity of the Biorken sum rule, this result implies a significant negative value for the integral of g1 for the neutron. These integrals lead to the conclusion, in the naïve quark parton model, that the total quark spin constitutes a rather small fraction of the spin of the nucleon. Results are also presented on the asymmetries in inclusive hadron production which are consistent with the above picture.
