22 research outputs found
Neutron structure function and inclusive DIS from H-3 and He-3 at large Bjorken-x
A detailed study of inclusive deep inelastic scattering (DIS) from mirror A =
3 nuclei at large values of the Bjorken variable x is presented. The main
purpose is to estimate the theoretical uncertainties on the extraction of the
neutron DIS structure function from such nuclear measurements. On one hand,
within models in which no modification of the bound nucleon structure functions
is taken into account, we have investigated the possible uncertainties arising
from: i) charge symmetry breaking terms in the nucleon-nucleon interaction, ii)
finite Q**2 effects neglected in the Bjorken limit, iii) the role of different
prescriptions for the nucleon Spectral Function normalization providing baryon
number conservation, and iv) the differences between the virtual nucleon and
light cone formalisms. Although these effects have been not yet considered in
existing analyses, our conclusion is that all these effects cancel at the level
of ~ 1% for x < 0.75 in overall agreement with previous findings. On the other
hand we have considered several models in which the modification of the bound
nucleon structure functions is accounted for to describe the EMC effect in DIS
scattering from nuclei. It turns out that within these models the cancellation
of nuclear effects is expected to occur only at a level of ~ 3%, leading to an
accuracy of ~ 12 % in the extraction of the neutron to proton structure
function ratio at x ~ 0.7 -0.8$. Another consequence of considering a broad
range of models of the EMC effect is that the previously suggested iteration
procedure does not improve the accuracy of the extraction of the neutron to
proton structure function ratio.Comment: revised version to appear in Phys. Rev. C; main modifications in
Section 4; no change in the conclusion