Analysis of the proton longitudinal structure function from the gluon distribution function

TL;DR

This paper critically examines the relationship between the proton's longitudinal structure function and the gluon distribution at small x, using next-to-leading order analysis and comparing with experimental data.

Contribution

It provides a detailed next-to-leading order analysis of the FL-gluon relationship and evaluates the proposed method against experimental data and theoretical models.

Findings

The gluon density aligns with the hard Pomeron behavior.

Comparison with H1 data supports the proposed approach.

Predictions suggest improved extraction of gluon distribution.

Abstract

We make a critical, next-to-leading order, study of the relationship between the longitudinal structure function FL and the gluon distribution proposed in Cooper- Sarkar et al. (Z. Phys. C 39:281, 1988; Acta Phys. Pol. B 34:2911 2003), which is frequently used to extract the gluon distribution from the proton longitudinal structure function at small x. The gluon density is obtained by expanding at particular choices of the point of expansion and compared with the hard Pomeron behavior for the gluon density. Comparisons with H1 data are made and predictions for the proposed best approach are also provided.