An Improved Determination of $\alpha_{S}$ From Neutrino-Nucleon Scattering

Abstract

We present an improved determination of the proton structure functions $F_{2}$ and $xF_{3}$ from the CCFR $\nu $-Fe deep inelastic scattering (DIS) experiment. Comparisons to high-statistics charged-lepton scattering results for $F_{2}$ from the NMC, E665, SLAC, and BCDMS experiments, after correcting for quark-charge and heavy-target effects, indicate good agreement for $x>0.1$ but some discrepancy at lower x. The $Q^{2}$ evolution of the structure functions yields the quantum chromodynamics (QCD) scale parameter $\Lambda_{\bar{MS}}^{NLO,(4)}=337 \pm 28$(exp.) MeV. This corresponds to a value of the strong coupling constant at the scale of mass of the Z-boson of $\alpha _{S}(M_{Z}^{2})=0.119 \pm 0.002 (exp.) \pm 0.004 (theory)$ and is one of the most precise measurements of this quantity.