Transverse beam spin asymmetries in forward-angle elastic electron-proton scattering

Phys Rev Lett. 2007 Aug 31;99(9):092301. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.092301. Epub 2007 Aug 29.

Abstract

We have measured the beam-normal single-spin asymmetry in elastic scattering of transversely polarized 3 GeV electrons from unpolarized protons at Q2=0.15, 0.25 (GeV/c)2. The results are inconsistent with calculations solely using the elastic nucleon intermediate state and generally agree with calculations with significant inelastic hadronic intermediate state contributions. A(n) provides a direct probe of the imaginary component of the 2gamma exchange amplitude, the complete description of which is important in the interpretation of data from precision electron-scattering experiments.