PSILOGO

Laboratory for Particle Physics (LTP)


LTP Colloquium

The spin-structure of the nucleon - selected recent results from the HERMES experiment at HERA

Friday, June 27, 2003, 16:00
WHGA Auditorium

Prof. K. Rith, Univ. Erlangen

Abstract:
Since the observation of the European Muon Collaboration that only a small fraction of the nucleon spin can be attributed to the spins of the quarks, the spin structure of the nucleon has been studied in detail by several polarised deep-inelastic lepton nucleon scattering experiments. The results of these experiments and the prospects for future experiments will be reviewed with special emphasis of the HERMES experiment at HERA, which uses a polarised atomic gas target internal to the HERA electron storage ring. These data represent the world's most precise experimental determination to date of the separate contributions of the spins of the up, down and strange quarks to the spin of the nucleon, and the first indication of a positive gluon polarisation.