Target-mass corrections and the Bloom-Gilman duality of the nucleon structure function

Abstract

The occurrence of the Bloom-Gilman local duality in the low-order moments of the nucleon structure function is investigated for values of the squared four-momentum transfer Q**2 between ~ 0.5 and 10 (GeV/c)**2. At variance with previous analyses truncated Cornwall-Norton moments, limited to the nucleon-resonance production regions, are considered. The role played by target-mass corrections is illustrated, showing that target-mass effects are necessary (but not sufficient) for producing the observed Bloom-Gilman duality of the nucleon structure function. The possibility of a local duality between the unphysical region at large values of the Nachtmann variable and the nucleon elastic peak contribution is analyzed. It is found that the proton magnetic form factor extracted assuming local duality is significantly below the experimental data at low and intermediate values of Q**2.