Beam-spin asymmetries from semi-inclusive pion electroproduction

Abstract

We have measured the moment $A_{LU}^{\sin\phi}$ corresponding to the polarized electron beam-spin asymmetry in SIDIS. $A_{LU}^{\sin\phi}$ is a twist-3 quantity providing information about quark-gluon correlations. Data were taken with the CLAS Spectrometer at Jefferson Lab using a 5.498 GeV longitudinally polarized electron beam and an unpolarized liquid hydrogen target. All three pion channels ($\pi^+$, $\pi^0$ and $\pi^-$) were measured simultaneously over a large range of kinematics within the virtuality range $Q^2 \approx$ 1.0-4.5 GeV$^2$. The observable was measured with better than 1% statistical precision over a large range of $z$, $P_T$, $x_B$, and $Q^{2}$, which permits comparison with several reaction models. The discussed measurements provide an upgrade in statistics over previous measurements, and serve as the first evidence for the negative sign of the $\pi^{-}$ $\sin\phi$ moment.