The ratio F2n/F2p in deep inelastic muon scattering

Abstract Results are presented on the ratio of neutron and proton structure functions, F 2 n / F 2 p , deduced from deep inelastic scattering of muon from hydrogen and deuterium. The data, which were obtained at the CERN muon beam at 90 and 280 GeV incident energy, cover the kinematic range x = 0.002−0.80 and Q 2 = 0.1−190 GeV 2 . The measured structure function ratios have small statistical and systematic errors, particularly at small and intermediate x . The observed Q 2 dependence in the range x = 0.1−0.4 is stronger than predicted by perturbative QCD. From the present data together with results from other experiments it is suggested that the twist-four coefficient for the proton is smaller than that for the neutron for x larger than 0.2.