POLARIZED-ELECTRON-NUCLEON SCATTERING IN GAUGE THEORIES OF WEAK AND ELECTROMAGNETIC-INTERACTIONS

The asymmetry in the scattering of longitudinally polarized electrons by nucleons is considered in the context of gauge theories of the weak and electromagnetic interactions. The predictions of a variety of gauge groups and assignments of fermion representations of present interest are given for deep-inelastic scattering, elastic scattering, and Δ electroproduction. It is shown that a combination of the three experiments carried out to a few parts in 105 at Q2∼1 GeV2/c2 can distinguish between various SU(2) × U(1) models and between various classes of models based on larger gauge groups. © 1978 The American Physical Society.