Precision Measurement of the Beam-Normal Single-Spin Asymmetry in Forward-Angle Elastic Electron-Proton Scattering

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

A beam-normal single-spin asymmetry generated in the scattering of transversely polarized electrons from unpolarized nucleons is an observable related to the imaginary part of the two-photon exchange process. We report a 2% precision measurement of the beam-normal single-spin asymmetry in elastic electron-proton scattering with a mean scattering angle of θlab=7.9^∘ and a mean energy of 1.149 GeV. The asymmetry result is Bₙ=-5.194±0.067(stat)±0.082 (syst) ppm. This is the most precise measurement of this quantity available to date and therefore provides a stringent test of two-photon exchange models at far-forward scattering angles (θlab→0) where they should be most reliable.