Towards a global analysis of polarized parton distributions

Abstract

We present a technique for implementing in a fast way, and without any\napproximations, higher-order calculations of partonic cross sections into\nglobal analyses of parton distribution functions. The approach, which is set up\nin Mellin-moment space, is particularly suited for analyses of future data from\npolarized proton-proton collisions, but not limited to this case. The\nusefulness and practicability of this method is demonstrated for the\nsemi-inclusive production of hadrons in deep-inelastic scattering and the\ntransverse momentum distribution of ``prompt'' photons in pp collisions, and a\ncase study for a future global analysis of polarized parton densities is\npresented.\n