Electron Helicity in the Final State of Elastice−pande−dScattering

Abstract

The percentage helicity of high-energy electrons scattered by target polarized protons and deuterons is discussed assuming one-photon exchange. With target protons polarized parallel to the direction of the incident beam, the back-scattered electrons get 100% polarized, which is expected to be of considerable experimental interest as a method of producing polarized electrons. Taking into account all possible types of deuteron target polarization, it is found that the percentage helicity of the final electrons is nonzero only if the targets are linearly polarized, and the relevance of this process to the study of the electromagnetic form factors of the neutron is also discussed.