Beam-spin asymmetries in the azimuthal distribution of pion electroproduction

A measurement of the beam-spin asymmetry in the azimuthal distribution of pions produced in semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering off protons is presented. The measurement was performed using the HERMES spectrometer with a hydrogen gas target and the longitudinally polarized 27.6 GeV positron beam of HERA. The sinusoidal amplitude of the dependence of the asymmetry on the angle phi of the hadron production plane around the virtual photon direction relative to the lepton scattering plane was measured for pi(+), pi(-) and pi(0) mesons. The dependence of this amplitude on the Bjorken scaling variable and on the pion fractional energy and transverse momentum is presented. The results are compared to theoretical model calculations. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.