Extracting the Strange Density from $xF_3$

Abstract

We present a QCD analysis of the strange and charm contributions to the neutrino deep inelastic structure function $xF_3$. We show that next-to-leading order effects, which are relatively important for $F_2$, play a lesser role in the case of $xF_3$. The neutrino--antineutrino difference $xF_3^{\nu} - xF_3^{\bar \nu}$ provides a new determination of the strange density, which exhibits some advantages with respect to other traditional methods.