Hadron Spin Dynamics

Abstract

Spin effects in exclusive and inclusive reactions provide an essential new dimension for testing QCD and unraveling hadron structure. Remarkable new experiments from SLAC, HERMES (DESY), and the Jefferson Laboratory present many challenges to theory, including measurements at HERMES and SMC of the single spin asymmetries in pion electroproduction, where the proton is polarized normal to the scattering plane. This type of single spin asymmetry may be due to the effects of rescattering of the outgoing quark on the spectators of the target proton, an effect usually neglected in conventional QCD analyses. Many aspects of spin, such as single-spin asymmetries and baryon magnetic moments are sensitive to the dynamics of hadrons at the amplitude level, rather than probability distributions. I illustrate the novel features of spin dynamics for relativistic systems by examining the explicit form of the light-front wavefunctions for the two-particle Fock state of the electron in QED, thus connecting the Schwinger anomalous magnetic moment to the spin and orbital momentum carried by its Fock state constituents and providing a transparent basis for understanding the structure of relativistic composite systems and their matrix elements in hadronic physics. I also present a survey of outstanding spin puzzles in QCD, particularly the double transverse spin asymmetry A_{NN} in elastic proton-proton scattering, the J/psi to rho-pi puzzle, and J/psi polarization at the Tevatron.