학술논문

Measurement of the Nucleon $F^n_2/F^p_2$ Structure Function Ratio by the Jefferson Lab MARATHON Tritium/Helium-3 Deep Inelastic Scattering Experiment
Document Type
article
Source
Subject
hep-ex
Language
Abstract
The ratio of the nucleon $F_2$ structure functions, $F_2^n/F_2^p$, isdetermined by the MARATHON experiment from measurements of deep inelasticscattering of electrons from $^3$H and $^3$He nuclei. The experiment wasperformed in the Hall A Facility of Jefferson Lab and used two high resolutionspectrometers for electron detection, and a cryogenic target system whichincluded a low-activity tritium cell. The data analysis used a novel techniqueexploiting the mirror symmetry of the two nuclei, which essentially eliminatesmany theoretical uncertainties in the extraction of the ratio. The results,which cover the Bjorken scaling variable range $0.19 < x < 0.83$, represent asignificant improvement compared to previous SLAC and Jefferson Labmeasurements for the ratio. They are compared to recent theoreticalcalculations and empirical determinations of the $F_2^n/F_2^p$ ratio.