QCD and power corrections to sum rules in deep-inelastic lepton-nucleon scattering

Abstract

In this paper we study QCD and power corrections to sum rules which show up in deep inelastic lepton-hadron scattering. Furthermore we will make a distinction between fundamental sum rules which can be derived from quantum field theory and those which are of a phenomenological origin. Using current algebra techniques the fundamental sum rules can be expressed into expectation values of (partially) conserved (axial-) vector currents sandwiched between hadronic states. These expectation values yield the quantum numbers of the corresponding hadron which are determined by the underlying flavour group $SU(n)_F$. In this case one can show that there exist an intimate relation between the appearance of power and QCD corrections. The above features do not hold for phenomenological sum rules, hereafter called non-fundamental. They have no foundation in quantum field theory and they mostly depend on certain assumptions made for the structure functions like superconvergence relations or the parton model. Therefore only the fundamental sum rules provide us with a stringent test of QCD.