Diffractive rho-meson Leptoproduction on Polarized Nucleon as a Way to Measure the Polarized Gluon Distribution

Abstract

The amplitude of diffractive $ρ$ (and open quark) leptoproduction on a polarized target is calculated in the leading log approximation of pQCD using the hadron-parton duality hypothesis. The spin-spin asymmetry is expressed in terms of the spin dependent gluon and quark structure functions in the small $x$ region. Therefore the $γ^*+p\to ρ+p$ reaction provides a promising tool to study the spin dependent gluon distribution $ΔG(x,q^2)$.

13 pages, LaTeX, 2 figures