Nuclear Deep-Inelastic Lepton Scattering and Coherence Phenomena

TL;DR

This review discusses experimental and theoretical insights into nuclear deep-inelastic scattering, focusing on coherence phenomena like shadowing, and explores recent advances in polarized scattering, vector meson production, and high parton density physics.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of nuclear coherence effects in deep-inelastic scattering, including new developments and future outlooks in the field.

Findings

Summary of experimental data on nuclear shadowing

Discussion of polarized deep-inelastic scattering results

Insights into high parton density phenomena in QCD

Abstract

This review outlines our present experimental knowledge and theoretical understanding of deep-inelastic scattering on nuclear targets. The emphasis is primarily on nuclear coherence phenomena, such as shadowing, where the key physics issue is the exploration of hadronic and quark-gluon fluctuations of a high-energy virtual photon and their passage through the nuclear medium. New developments in polarized deep-inelastic scattering on nuclei are also discussed, and more conventional binding and Fermi motion effects are summarized. The report closes with a brief outlook on vector meson electroproduction, nuclear shadowing at very large Q^2 and the physics of high parton densities in QCD.