Strangeness in the nucleon: neutrino-nucleon and polarized electron-nucleon scattering

After the EMC and subsequent experiments at CERN, SLAC and DESY on the deep inelastic scattering of polarized leptons on polarized nucleons, it is now established that the Q(2) = 0 value of the axial strange form factor of the nucleon. a quantity which is connected with the spin of the proton and is quite relevant from the theoretical point of view, is relatively large. In this review. we consider different methods and observables that allow one to obtain information on the strange axial and vector form factors of the nucleon at different values of Q(2). These methods are based on the investigation of the neutral current induced effects such as the P-odd asymmetry in the scattering of polarized electrons on protons and nuclei, the elastic neutrino (antineutrino) scattering on protons and the quasi-elastic neutrino (antineutrino) scattering on nuclei. We discuss in detail the phenomenology of these processes and the existing experimental data. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.