Meson cloud of the nucleon in polarized semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering

Abstract

We investigate the possibility of identifying an explicit pionic component of the nucleon through measurements of polarized Δ++ baryon fragments produced in deep-inelastic leptoproduction off polarized protons, which may help to identify the physical mechanism responsible for the breaking of the Gottfried sum rule. The pion-exchange model predicts highly correlated polarizations of the Δ++ and target proton, in marked contrast with the competing diquark fragmentation process. Measurement of asymmetries in polarized Λ production may also reveal the presence of a kaon cloud in the nucleon. © 1995, Springer-Verlag. All rights reserved.