Relativistic spin sum rules and the role of the pivot

Abstract

Spin sum rules depend on the choice of a pivot, i.e. the point about which the angular momentun is defined, usually identified with the center of the nucleon. The latter is however not unique in a relativistic theory and has led to apparently contradictory results in the literature. Using the recently developed phase-space approach, we compute for the first time the contribution associated with the motion of the center of the nucleon, and we derive a general spin sum rule which reduces to established results after appropriate choices for the pivot and the spin component.