Electron-Proton Scattering at High Q^2

TL;DR

This paper analyzes high Q^2 electron-proton scattering data from HERA to study electroweak effects and proton structure, extracting structure functions and quark densities, and discusses future prospects with larger data samples.

Contribution

It provides new measurements of the proton's structure functions and quark densities at high Q^2, enhancing understanding of electroweak effects in ep interactions.

Findings

Sensitivity of high Q^2 data to proton structure

Extraction of the generalized structure function xF3

Projections for future data analysis with increased luminosity

Abstract

The $e^{+}p$ and $e^{-}p$ scattering data recorded at HERA during the recent years offer the possibility to study electroweak effects in $ep$ interactions apparent at high momentum transfers, $Q^{2}$, and to reveal information on the proton parton densities at large values of the Bjorken scaling variable x. From the neutral current cross section measurements, H1 and ZEUS extract the generalized structure function $x{\cal F}_{3}$, which can be related to the valence quark content of the proton. Individual quark densities are extracted by a global fit to the H1 neutral and charged current $e^{+}p$ and $e^{-}p$ data. The new results show the sensitivity of high $Q^{2}$ $ep$ data to the structure of the proton and indicate what to expect from a 1 fb$^{-1}$ data sample to be taken by H1 and ZEUS until 2006 at the upgraded HERA collider. Future perspectives concerning the investigation of electroweak effects and their utilization to extract the parton content of the proton are shortly discussed.