Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Notational conventions
- Errata
- 1 Spin and helicity
- 2 The effect of Lorentz and discrete transformations on helicity states, fields and wave functions
- 3 The spin density matrix
- 4 Transition amplitudes
- 5 The observables of a reaction
- 6 The production of polarized hadrons
- 7 The production of polarized e±
- 8 Analysis of polarized states: polarimetry
- 9 Electroweak interactions
- 10 Quantum chromodynamics: spin in the world of massless partons
- 11 The spin of the nucleon: polarized deep inelastic scattering
- 12 Two-spin and parity-violating single-spin asymmetries at large scale
- 13 One-particle inclusive transverse single-spin asymmetries
- 14 Elastic scattering at high energies
- Appendix 1 The irreducible representation matrices for the rotation group and the rotation functions djλμ(θ)
- Appendix 2 Homogeneous Lorentz transformations and their representations
- Appendix 3 Spin properties of fields and wave equations
- Appendix 4 Transversity amplitudes
- Appendix 5 Common notations for helicity amplitudes
- Appendix 6 The coefficients involved in the parity-invariance relations amongst the dynamical reaction parameters
- Appendix 7 The coefficients involved in the additional invariance constraints on the dynamical reaction parameters for a spin-s particle
- Appendix 8 Symmetry properties of the Cartesian reaction parameters
- Appendix 9 ‘Shorthand’ notation and nomenclature for the Argonne Lab reaction parameters
- Appendix 10 The linearly independent reaction parameters for various reactions and their relation to the helicity amplitudes
- Appendix 11 The Feynman rules for QCD
- Appendix 12 Dirac spinors and matrix elements
- References
- Index
14 - Elastic scattering at high energies
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 January 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Notational conventions
- Errata
- 1 Spin and helicity
- 2 The effect of Lorentz and discrete transformations on helicity states, fields and wave functions
- 3 The spin density matrix
- 4 Transition amplitudes
- 5 The observables of a reaction
- 6 The production of polarized hadrons
- 7 The production of polarized e±
- 8 Analysis of polarized states: polarimetry
- 9 Electroweak interactions
- 10 Quantum chromodynamics: spin in the world of massless partons
- 11 The spin of the nucleon: polarized deep inelastic scattering
- 12 Two-spin and parity-violating single-spin asymmetries at large scale
- 13 One-particle inclusive transverse single-spin asymmetries
- 14 Elastic scattering at high energies
- Appendix 1 The irreducible representation matrices for the rotation group and the rotation functions djλμ(θ)
- Appendix 2 Homogeneous Lorentz transformations and their representations
- Appendix 3 Spin properties of fields and wave equations
- Appendix 4 Transversity amplitudes
- Appendix 5 Common notations for helicity amplitudes
- Appendix 6 The coefficients involved in the parity-invariance relations amongst the dynamical reaction parameters
- Appendix 7 The coefficients involved in the additional invariance constraints on the dynamical reaction parameters for a spin-s particle
- Appendix 8 Symmetry properties of the Cartesian reaction parameters
- Appendix 9 ‘Shorthand’ notation and nomenclature for the Argonne Lab reaction parameters
- Appendix 10 The linearly independent reaction parameters for various reactions and their relation to the helicity amplitudes
- Appendix 11 The Feynman rules for QCD
- Appendix 12 Dirac spinors and matrix elements
- References
- Index
Summary
Elastic scattering is in some sense the most fundamental type of reaction, but it is also the most difficult to understand theoretically. There is a huge amount of spin-dependent data at low to medium energies, but little understanding of the mechanisms at work. In several instances, however, spin-dependent data have played a crucial rôle in nailing the coffin of a current theoretical picture. Somehow, simple-minded ideas, which succeed in explaining gross features of cross-sections, angular distributions etc., run aground when faced with the more probing questions involved in spin-dependent reactions. Because of the lack of clear-cut theoretical ideas and because of the difficulty of the experiments there has generally been a lack of experimental effort in this field since the mid-1980s, but this situation is about to change with the commissioning of the RHIC collider at Brookhaven. There, besides a major programme of heavy-ion physics, it will be possible to study pp collisions, with both beams polarized and up to an energy of 250 GeV per beam. Consequently we shall concentrate in this chapter on nucleon–nucleon scattering.
Broadly speaking there are two kinematic regions of interest, small to medium values of momentum transfer and large momentum transfer. The first is, strictly speaking, in the domain of non-perturbative QCD, so there are no precise theoretical predictions, though there are very interesting suggestive hints. In the second region perturbative QCD ought to be applicable and, indeed, very powerful theoretical results have been derived.
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- Information
- Spin in Particle Physics , pp. 413 - 432Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2001