The polarized and unpolarized photon content of the nucleon

The equivalent photon content of polarized and unpolarized nucleons (protons, neutrons), utilized in Weizsdcker-Williams approximations, are presented. For this purpose a new expression for the elastic photon component of a polarized nucleon is derived. The inelastic photon components are obtained from the corresponding momentum evolution equations subject to the boundary conditions of their vanishing at some low momentum scale. The resulting photon asymmetries, important for estimating cross section asymmetries in photon induced subprocesses are also presented for some typical relevant momentum scales. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.