Confirmation of quark-hadron duality in the neutron F_2 structure function

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that quark-hadron duality holds for the neutron F_2 structure function across various Q^2 values, enabling the use of resonance data to better understand parton distributions at high x.

Contribution

First extraction of the neutron F_2 structure function from inclusive data in the resonance region, confirming duality in the neutron and proton.

Findings

Duality is accurate in low-lying neutron resonance regions.

Results agree with theoretical expectations.

Duality holds for both neutron and proton across tested Q^2 range.

Abstract

We apply a recently developed technique to extract for the first time the neutron F_2^n structure function from inclusive proton and deuteron data in the nucleon resonance region, and test the validity of quark-hadron duality in the neutron. We establish the accuracy of duality in the low-lying neutron resonance regions over a range of Q^2, and compare with the corresponding results on the proton and with theoretical expectations. The confirmation of duality in both the neutron and proton opens the possibility of using resonance region data to constrain parton distributions at large x.