Polarized parton distributions from charged-current deep-inelastic scattering and future neutrino factories

Abstract

We discuss the determination of polarized parton distributions from charged-current deep-inelastic scattering experiments. We summarize the next-to-leading order treatment of charged-current polarized structure functions, their relation to polarized parton distributions and scale dependence, and discuss their description by means of a next-to-leading order evolution code. We discuss current theoretical expectations and positivity constraints on the unmeasured C-odd combinations Delta q-Delta qbar of polarized quark distributions, and their determination in charged-current deep-inelastic scattering experiments. We give estimates of the expected errors on charged-current structure functions at a future neutrino factory, and perform a study of the accuracy in the determination of polarized parton distributions that would be possible at such a facility. We show that these measurements have the potential to distinguish between different theoretical scenarios for the proton spin structure.