On Gauge-Invariant Decomposition of Nucleon Spin

Abstract

We investigate the relation between the known decompositions of the nucleon spin into its constituents, thereby clarifying in what respect they are common and in what respect they are different essentially. The decomposition recently proposed by Chen et al. can be thought of as a nontrivial generalization of the gauge-variant Jaffe-Manohar decomposition so as to meet the gauge-invariance requirement of each term of the decomposition. We however point out that there is another gauge-invariant decomposition of the nucleon spin, which is closer to the Ji decomposition, while allowing the decomposition of the gluon total angular momentum into the spin and orbital parts. After clarifying the reason why the gauge-invariant decomposition of the nucleon spin is not unique, we discuss which decomposition is more preferable from the experimental viewpoint.