New analysis concerning the strange quark polarization puzzle

Abstract

The fact that analyses of semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering suggest that the polarized strange quark density $\Delta s(x) + \Delta \bar{s}(x)$ is positive in the measured region of Bjorken x, whereas all analyses of inclusive deep inelastic scattering yield significantly negative values of this quantity, is known as the "strange quark polarization puzzle". We have analyzed the world data on inclusive deep inelastic scattering, including the COMPASS 2010 proton data on the spin asymmetries, and for the first time, the new extremely precise JLab CLAS data on the proton and deuteron spin structure functions. Despite allowing in our parametrization, for a possible sign change, our results confirm that the inclusive data yield significantly negative values for the polarized strange quark density.