Analytic Approximation to the GLAP evolution of $F_2(x,Q^2)$ in the small-$x$ region

Abstract

We propose a systematic approximation scheme for solving GLAP evolution equations at small Bjorken-$x$. The approximate solutions interpolate smoothly between hard (singular as $x^{-(1+\lambda)}$, $\lambda> 0$) and soft (singular at most as $x^{-1}$) initial conditions and may be applied in a wide range of $Q^2$. The small-$x$ behavior of $F_2^p(x,Q^2)$ which is extracted from a fit to HERA data agrees with results from a global fit.