Azimuthal asymmetries in hadronic final states at HERA

The distribution of hadrons produced in deeply inelastic electron–proton collisions depends on the azimuthal angle between lepton scattering plane and hadron production plane in the photon-proton centre-of-mass frame. In addition to the well known up-down asymmetry induced by the azimuthal dependence of the Born level subprocess, there is also a non-vanishing left-right asymmetry, provided the incoming electron is polarized. This asymmetry is time-reversal-odd and induced by absorptive corrections to the Born level process. We investigate the numerical magnitude of azimuthal asymmetries in semi-inclusive hadron production at HERA with particular emphasis on a possible determination of the time-reversal-odd asymmetry.