Chiral-odd transversity spin structure function $h_1(x)$ of the nucleon in a constituent quark model

Abstract

We study the chiral-odd transversity spin-dependent quark distribution function $h_1 (x)$ of the nucleon in a constituent quark model. The twist-2 structure functions, $f_1(x)$, $g_1(x)$ and $h_1(x)$ are calculated within the diquark spectator approximation. Whereas an inequality $f_1(x) > h_1(x) > g_1(x)$ holds with the interaction between quark and diquark being scalar, the axial-vector effective quark-diquark interaction, which contributes to the $d$-quark distribution, does not lead to such a simple relation. We find that $h_1(x)$ for the $d$-quark becomes somewhat smaller than $g_1^d (x)$, when we fix the model parameter to reproduce known other structure functions. We also include corrections due to the non-trivial structure of the constituent quark, which is modeled by the Goldstone boson dressing. This improves agreements of $f_1(x)$ and $g_1(x)$ with experiments, and brings further reduction of $h_1^d(x)$ distribution. Consequences for semi-inclusive experiments are also discussed.