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Title: Analytic Expression for the Joint x and Q{sup 2} Dependences of the Deep-Inelastic Structure Functions

Journal Article · · Physical Review Letters
 [1];  [2];  [3]
  1. High Energy Physics Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439 (United States)
  2. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208 (United States)
  3. Physics Department, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island 02912 (United States)

We obtain a good analytic fit to the joint Bjorken-x and Q{sup 2} dependences of ZEUS data on the deep-inelastic structure function F{sub 2}{sup p}(x,Q{sup 2}). At fixed virtuality Q{sup 2}, as we showed previously, our expression is an expansion in powers of ln(1/x) that satisfies the Froissart bound. Here we show that for each x, the Q{sup 2} dependence of the data is well described by an expansion in powers of lnQ{sup 2}. The resulting analytic expression allows us to predict the logarithmic derivatives ({partial_derivative}{sup n}F{sub 2}{sup p}/({partial_derivative}lnQ{sup 2}){sup n}){sub x} for n=1,2 and to compare the results successfully with other data. We extrapolate the proton structure function F{sub 2}{sup p}(x,Q{sup 2}) to the very large Q{sup 2} and the very small x regions that are inaccessible to present-day experiments and contrast our expectations with those of conventional global fits of parton distribution functions.

OSTI ID:
20953281
Journal Information:
Physical Review Letters, Vol. 98, Issue 24; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.242001; (c) 2007 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0031-9007
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English