On the Range of Validity of the Dipole Picture

TL;DR

This paper derives bounds on ratios of deep inelastic structure functions from the dipole picture and uses experimental data to constrain its validity range in high-energy photon-hadron scattering.

Contribution

It provides correlated bounds on structure function ratios and assesses the dipole picture’s applicability using experimental data.

Findings

Bounds significantly constrain the dipole picture's validity.

Ratios involving charm structure functions are analyzed.

Experimental data can test the dipole model's applicability.

Abstract

We derive correlated bounds on ratios of deep inelastic structure functions from the dipole picture of photon-hadron scattering at high energies. In particular we consider ratios of the longitudinal structure function, the total structure function and the charm part of the latter. We also consider ratios of total structure functions taken at the same energy but at three different photon virtualities. It is shown that by confronting these bounds with experimental data we can significantly constrain the range of validity of the dipole picture.