Measurement of the photon structure function F 2 γ at low x

Deep inelastic electron-photon scattering is studied using e + e − data collected by the OPAL detector at centre-of-mass energies . The photon structure function F 2 γ (x, 2 ) is explored in a 2 range of 1.1 to 6.6 GeV 2 at lower x values than ever before. To probe this kinematic region events are selected with a beam electron scattered into one of the OPAL luminosity calorimeters at scattering angles between 27 and 55 mrad. A measurement is presented of the photon structure function F 2 γ (x, 2 ) at 〈 2 〉 = 1.86 GeV 2 and 3.76 GeV 2 in five logarithmic x bins from 0.0025 to 0.2.