Real photon structure at an e^+e^- linear collider

Abstract

Previous studies of the kinematic coverage for measuring the photon structure function F_2^gamma at a future 500 GeV e^+e^- linear collider are updated using current estimates of luminosities and important detector parameters. The perturbative expansion for the evolution of F_2^gamma is briefly recalled in view of a recent claim that all existing next-to-leading order analyses of the photon structure are incorrect. A simple illustration is given of the different sensitivities of hadronic and photonic structure functions on the strong coupling constant alpha_s.