Uncertainty of Predicted High Q2 Structure Functions due to Parametrization Assumptions

Abstract

The HERA luminosity upgrade is expected to provide statistically significant measurements of the proton structure functions at 0.5<x<0.7 and very high Q2 (Q2>>M_{Z}^2). The behaviour of the parton densities (PDFs) in this high x, Q2 regime is predicted from DGLAP evolution of PDF parametrizations from lower Q2 fits of the data. Uncertainties in the PDFs at high x may propagate to lower x through DGLAP evolution at very high Q2. In this presentation the behaviour of the PDFs at high x is reexamined with different parametrizations that have been tried earlier, and with somewhat different constraints, set primarily by existing fixed target data. We present and discuss the effects at Q2=40000GeV^2 and compare our results with uncertainties obtained from propagation of experimental errors at high x, high Q2 DIS data.