Final-state interaction effects in semi-exclusive DIS off the deuteron

The effects of the final-state interaction (FSI) in semi-exclusive deep inelastic scattering of electrons off the deuteron are analyzed paying particular attention to two extreme kinematical regions: i) the one where FSI effects are minimized, so that the quark distribution of bound nucleons could be investigated, and ii) the one where the re-interaction of the produced hadrons with the spectator nucleon is maximized, which would allow one to study the mechanism of hadronization of highly virtual quarks. It is demonstrated that when the recoiling spectator nucleon is detected in the backward hemisphere with low momentum, the effects from the FSI are negligible, whereas at large transverse momenta of the spectator, FSI effects are rather large. Numerical estimates show that the FSI corrections are sensitive to the theoretical models of the hadronization mechanism.