A. Airapetian et al., Measurement of the beam-spin azimuthal asymmetry associated with deeply-virtual Compton scattering - art. no. 182001, PHYS REV L, 8718(18), 2001, pp. 2001
The beam-spin asymmetry in hard electroproduction of photons has been measu
red. The data have been accumulated by the HERMES experiment at DESY using
the HERA 27.6 GeV longitudinally polarized positron beam and an unpolarized
hydrogen-gas target. The asymmetry in the azimuthal distribution of the pr
oduced photons in the angle phi relative to the lepton scattering plane was
determined with respect to the helicity state of the incoming positron bea
m. The beam-spin analyzing power in the sin phi moment was measured to be -
0.23 +/- 0.04(stat) +/- 0.03(syst) in the missing-mass range below 1.7 GeV.
The observed asymmetry is attributed to the interference of the Bethe-Heit
ler and deeply virtual Compton scattering processes.