Neutron/Proton Structure Function Ratio at Large x

Abstract

We re-examine the large-x neutron/proton structure function ratio extracted from the latest deuteron data, taking into account the most recent developments in the treatment of Fermi motion, binding and nucleon off-shell effects in the deuteron. Our findings suggest that as x->1 the ratio of the neutron to proton structure functions (F_2^n/F_2^p) is consistent with the perturbative QCD expectation of 3/7, but larger than the value of 1/4 obtained in earlier analyses.

Comments: 18 pages RevTeX, 4 postscript figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Lett. B