What We Can Learn About Nucleon Spin Structure From Recent Data

Abstract

We have used recent polarized deep-inelastic scattering data from CERN and SLAC to extract information about nucleon spin structure. We find that the SMC proton data, the E142 neutron data and the deuteron data from SMC and E143 give different results for fractions of the spin carried by each of the constituents. These appear to lead to two different and incompatible models for the polarized strange sea. The polarized gluon distribution occuring in the gluon anomaly does not have to be large in order to be consistent with either set of experimental data. However, it appears that the discrepancies in the implications of these data cannot be resolved with any simple theoretical arguments. We conclude that more experiments must be performed in order to adequately determine the fraction of spin carried by each of the nucleon constituents.