Inclusive Asymmetries

Abstract

The advent of the polarized proton beam at the Argonne zero-gradient synchrotron (ZGS) has permitted considerable improvement in technique for experiments which study spin dependence in inelastic strong interactions. Although these experiments are possible with a polarized proton target, the backgrounds due to carbon and oxygen in these targets make inclusive measurements difficult. In a recent experiment, we have used the polarized proton beam to measure left-right asymmetries for the reactions p_pol + p→p, K^±, π^± + anything by placing a liquid hydrogen (LH₂) target in the extracted polarized proton beam (p_pol denotes polarized proton). The beam polarization is vertical and normal to the plane defined by the incident and scattered momenta. A portion of the experiment was run with a target fill of liquid deuterium, so that some information on the reaction p_pol + n→p, K^±, π^± + anything was obtained. The data reported here are preliminary in nature and were accumulated at an incident proton momentum of 11.8 GeV/c.