Probing Nucleon Spin Structure in Deep-inelastic Scattering, Proton–Proton Collisions, and Drell–Yan Processes

Abstract

A pedagogical summary of current and past experimental results of spin-dependent nucleon structure prior to the arrival of the Electron-Ion Collider is attempted. After an introduction, results from fixed-target experiments at SLAC, Fermilab, Jefferson Lab, CERN and DESY and collider experiments from RHIC are presented, starting with the longitudinal spin structure of the nucleon, followed by generalized parton distributions (GPDs), which map the proton in transverse position space. The final part discusses transverse proton or parton spin and transverse parton momenta (TMDs), and their their (spin-orbit) correlations, which are addressed by a multitude of recent experimental results. The GPDs and TMDs provide complementary pathways to mapping multi-dimensional nucleon structure.