Resonance estimates for single spin asymmetries in elastic electron-nucleon scattering

Abstract

We discuss the target and beam normal spin asymmetries in elastic electron-nucleon scattering which depend on the imaginary part of two-photon exchange processes between electron and nucleon. We express this imaginary part as a phase space integral over the doubly virtual Compton scattering tensor on the nucleon. We use unitarity to model the doubly virtual Compton scattering tensor in the resonance region in terms of $γ^* N \to πN$ electroabsorption amplitudes. Taking those amplitudes from a phenomenological analysis of pion electroproduction observables, we present results for beam and target normal single spin asymmetries for elastic electron-nucleon scattering for beam energies below 1 GeV and in the 1-3 GeV region, where several experiments are performed or are in progress.