Target mass corrections and higher twist effects in polarized deep-inelastic scattering

Abstract

We perform a next-to-leading-order QCD analysis to world data on polarized structure functions $g_1$ and $g_2$ in a fixed-flavor number scheme. We include target mass corrections and higher twist effects in our fitting procedure and study their non-negligible effects on physically interesting quantities. Twist-3 contributions to both polarized structure functions are determined, and the accuracy of the extracted polarized parton distribution functions is improved. $^{3}\rm He$ and $^{3}\rm H$ polarized structure functions are described based on our fit result. Moreover, sum rules are derived and compared with available theoretical and experimental results.