Measurement of the neutral current cross section and F2 structure function for deep inelastic e+p scattering at HERA

TL;DR

This paper reports measurements of the neutral current cross section and the F2 structure function for deep inelastic e+p scattering at HERA, covering a broad kinematic range and confirming QCD predictions.

Contribution

First measurement of F2 and cross sections at HERA in this energy and kinematic range, validating perturbative QCD with DGLAP evolution.

Findings

F2 varies with x and Q2 as predicted by NLO QCD

Data covers 2.7 < Q^2 < 30000 GeV^2 and 6×10^-5 < x < 0.65

Results agree with theoretical models

Abstract

The cross section and the proton structure function F2 for neutral current deep inelastic e+p scattering have been measured with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 30 pb-1. The data were collected in 1996 and 1997 at a centre-of-mass energy of 300 GeV. They cover the kinematic range 2.7 < Q^2 < 30000 GeV2 and 6.10^-5 < x < 0.65. The variation of F2 with x and Q2 is well described by next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD as implemented in the DGLAP evolution equations.