Polarized Proton Structure in the Resonance Region

In view of the precise data available on inclusive polarized electron scattering off polarized proton targets in the nucleon resonance excitation region, we compare these results with the coherent sum of resonant contributions to the polarized structure function g₁ and virtual photon asymmetry A₁. To this goal, we employ the nucleon resonance electroexcitation amplitudes determined for photon virtualities Q² < 5.0 GeV² from analyses of the CLAS data on exclusive electroproduction off protons in the resonance region. Most of the well established resonances of four star PDG status in the mass range up to 1.75 GeV are included. We find that the resonance-like structures observed in the inclusive g₁ data are related to the resonant contributions in the entire range of photon virtuality Q² where the data on g₁ are available. In the range of invariant mass of the final hadron system W > 1.5 GeV, the data on the asymmetry A₁ are well reproduced even when accounting for resonant contributions only, especially for the larger values of Q² and energies analysed. This observation offers an interesting hint to quark-hadron duality seen in polarized inclusive electron scattering observables. (author)