A high statistics measurement of the proton structure functions F2(x, Q2) and R from deep inelastic muon scattering at high Q2

Abstract We present results on a high statistics study of the proton structure functions F 2 ( x , Q 2 ) and R = σ L / σ T measured in deep inelastic scattering of muons on a hydrogen target. The analysis is based on 1.8 × 10 6 events after all cuts, recorded at beam energies of 100, 120, 200 and 280 GeV and covering a kinematic range 0.06 ⩽ x ⩽ 0.80 and 7 GeV 2 ⩽ Q 2 ⩽260 GeV 2 . At small x , we find R to be different from zero in agreement with predictions of perturbative QCD.