HERA results on the structure of the proton

TL;DR

This paper reviews HERA's experimental results on proton structure, highlighting how quantum chromodynamics and dipole models explain deep inelastic scattering and diffraction data across various energy scales.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of experimental findings and theoretical models, including QCD and saturation effects, in understanding proton structure at HERA.

Findings

QCD explains data down to low Q^2

Regge and dipole models describe small Q^2 data

Dipole models unify diffractive data features

Abstract

A selection of results from the H1 and ZEUS experiments at HERA are reviewed, particularly in the area of deep inelastic scattering and diffraction. Quantum chromodynamics gives a good explanation of these data down to surprisingly low values of the four-momentum transfer, $Q^2$. Data at smaller $Q^2$ can be described by Regge models as well as by dipole models including parton-saturation effects. The latter can also give a unified description of many features of diffractive data.