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Deep inelastic scattering from A=3 nuclei and the neutron structure function

I. R. Afnan, F. Bissey, J. Gomez, A. T. Katramatou, S. Liuti, W. Melnitchouk, G. G. Petratos, A. W. Thomas

nucl-tharXiv:nucl-th/0306054

Abstract

We present a comprehensive analysis of deep inelastic scattering from He-3 and H-3, focusing in particular on the extraction of the free neutron structure function, F2n. Nuclear corrections are shown to cancel to within 1-2% for the isospin-weighted ratio of He-3 to H-3 structure functions, which leads to more than an order of magnitude improvement in the current uncertainty on the neutron to proton ratio F2n/F2p at large x. Theoretical uncertainties originating from the nuclear wave function, including possible non-nucleonic components, are evaluated. Measurement of the He-3 and H-3 structure functions will, in addition, determine the magnitude of the EMC effect in all A < 4 nuclei.

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