Multidimensional, High Precision Measurements of Beam Single Spin Asymmetries in Semi-inclusive π+ Electroproduction off Protons in the Valence Region

High precision measurements of the polarized electron beam-spin asymmetry in semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering (SIDIS) from the proton have been performed using a 10.6 GeV incident electron beam and the CLAS12 spectrometer at Jefferson Lab. We report here a high precision multidimensional study of single π+ SIDIS data over a large kinematic range in Bjorken x, fractional energy, and transverse momentum of the hadron as well as photon virtualities Q2 ranging from 1–7 GeV2. In particular, the structure function ratio FLUsinϕ/FUU has been determined, where FLUsinϕ is a twist-3 quantity that can reveal novel aspects of emergent hadron mass and quark-gluon correlations within the nucleon. The data’s impact on the evolving understanding of the underlying reaction mechanisms and their kinematic variation is explored using theoretical models for the different contributing transverse momentum dependent parton distribution functions.Received 10 January 2021Revised 28 September 2021Accepted 21 January 2022DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.128.062005Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.Published by the American Physical SocietyPhysics Subject Headings (PhySH)Research AreasForm factorsParticle interactionsPhysical SystemsBaryonsElectronsMesonsPropertiesSpinParticles & Fields