A. Airapetian et al., Measurement of longitudinal spin transfer to Lambda hyperons in deep-inelastic lepton scattering - art. no. 112005, PHYS REV D, 6411(11), 2001, pp. 2005
Spin transfer in deep-inelastic Lambda electroproduction has been studied w
ith the HERMES detector using the 27.6 GeV polarized positron beam in the D
ESY HERA storage ring. For an average fractional energy transfer [z] = 0.45
, the longitudinal spin transfer from the virtual photon to the Lambda has
been extracted. The spin transfer along the Lambda momentum direction is fo
und to be 0.11+/-0.17(stat)+/-0.03(syst); similar values are found for othe
r possible choices for the longitudinal spin direction of the Lambda. This
result is the most precise value obtained to date from deep-inelastic scatt
ering with charged lepton beams, and is sensitive to polarized up quark fra
gmentation to hyperon states. The experimental result is found to be in gen
eral agreement with various models of the Lambda spin content, and is consi
stent with the assumption of helicity conservation in the fragmentation pro
cess.