Azimuthal Asymmetries in Hadronic Final States at HERA

Abstract

The distribution of hadrons produced in deeply inelastic electron-proton collisions depends on the azimuthal angle between lepton scattering plane and hadron production plane in the photon-proton centre-of-mass frame. In addition to the well known up-down asymmetry induced by the azimuthal dependence of the Born level subprocess, there is also a non-vanishing left-right asymmetry, provided the incoming electron is polarized. This asymmetry is time-reversal-odd and induced by absorptive corrections to the Born level process. We investigate the numerical magnitude of azimuthal asymmetries in semi-inclusive hadron production at HERA with particular emphasis on a possible determination of the time-reversal-odd asymmetry.

9 pages, LaTeX, 7 figures included, The complete paper, including figures, is also available via anonymous ftp at ftp://ttpux2.physik.uni-karlsruhe.de/ttp99/ttp99-29/ or via www at http://www-ttp.physik.uni-karlsruhe.de/Preprints/