Nuclear Deep-Inelastic Lepton Scattering and Coherence Phenomena

TL;DR

This review surveys deep-inelastic lepton scattering on nuclear targets, emphasizing coherence phenomena such as shadowing and the space-time interpretation of photon fluctuations in the nuclear medium. It integrates the free-nucleon DIS framework—kinematics, structure functions, and QCD evolution—with the nuclear environment, detailing incoherent modifications and coherent multi-nucleon effects, including diffraction and vector-meson contributions. The discussion covers polarized DIS on nuclei, operator-product expansion perspectives, and the role of diffraction in guiding nuclear parton distributions, culminating in a broad outlook on vector meson electroproduction, high-Q^2 shadowing, and high-density QCD. Overall, the work connects experimental findings across x and Q^2 to a cohesive theoretical picture of how quark-gluon distributions are altered inside nuclei.

Abstract

This review outlines our present experimental knowledge and theoretical understanding of deep-inelastic scattering on nuclear targets. The emphasis is primarily on nuclear coherence phenomena, such as shadowing, where the key physics issue is the exploration of hadronic and quark-gluon fluctuations of a high-energy virtual photon and their passage through the nuclear medium. New developments in polarized deep-inelastic scattering on nuclei are also discussed, and more conventional binding and Fermi motion effects are summarized. The report closes with a brief outlook on vector meson electroproduction, nuclear shadowing at very large Q^2 and the physics of high parton densities in QCD.

Figures (13)

• Figure 2.1: Inclusive deep-inelastic lepton-nucleon scattering.
• Figure 2.2: The proton structure function $F_2^{{\mathrm{p}}}$ as a function of $x$ for various $Q^2$. The data are taken from H1 Aid:1996auAdloff:1997mf, ZEUS Derrick:1996efDerrick:1996hnBreitweg:1998dz, E665 Adams:1996gu, NMC Arneodo:1997qe, SLAC Whitlow:1990dr, and BCDMS Benvenuti:1989rh.
• Figure 2.3: The $Q^2$-dependence of the proton structure function $F_2^{{\mathrm{p}}}$ for $x < 0.1$. The data are taken from ZEUS Derrick:1996hnBreitweg:1998dz, E665 Adams:1996gu, and NMC Arneodo:1997qe.
• Figure 2.4: The ratio $R=\sigma_L/\sigma_T$ as a function of $x$. The data are taken from NMC Arneodo:1997qe, BCDMS Benvenuti:1989rhBenvenuti:1990fmBenvenuti:1987zj, and CDHSW Berge:1991hr.
• Figure 2.5: A compilation of data of the proton, deuteron, and neutron spin structure functions $g_1$ from Refs.Adeva:1998vvAirapetian:1998wiAckerstaff:1997wsAnthony:1999rmAbe:1997dpAnthony:1996mwAbe:1998wq. (We thank U. Stoesslein for the preparation of this figure.)