Small Angle Scattering of Polarized Protons

Experiment E950 at AGS, BNL has provided data with high statistics for the left-right asymmetry of proton-carbon elastic scattering in the Coulomb-nuclear interference region of momentum transfer. It allows to access information about spin properties of the Pomeron and has practical implications for polarimetry at high energies. Relying on Regge factorization the results for the parameter r_5, ratio of spin-flip to non-flip amplitudes, is compared with the same parameter measured earlier in pion-proton elastic and charge exchange scattering. While data for Im r_5 agree (within large systematic errors), there might be a problem for Re r_5. The \pi N data indicate at a rather small contribution of the f-Reggeon to the spin-flip part of the iso-scalar amplitude which is dominated by the Pomeron. This conclusion is supported by direct analysis of data for elastic and charge exchange pp and pn scattering which also indicate at a vanishing real part of the hadronic spin-flip amplitude at energies 20 GeV and higher. This is a good news for polarimetry, since the E950 results enhanced by forthcoming new measurements at AGS can be safely used for polarimetry at RHIC at higher energies.