Eur. Phys. J. C (2006) 48: 797-804
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-006-0015-7

Theoretical Physics

Information from leading neutrons at HERA

¹ Department of Physics and Institute for Particle Physics Phenomenology, University of Durham, Durham, DH1 3LE, UK
² Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute, Gatchina, St. Petersburg, 188300, Russia

^* e-mail: V.A.Khoze@durham.ac.uk

Received: 21 June 2006
Published online: 24 October 2006

Abstract

In principle, leading neutrons produced in photoproduction and deep-inelastic scattering at HERA have the potential to determine the pion structure function, the neutron absorptive cross section and the form of the pion flux. To explore this potential we compare theoretical predictions for the x_L and p_t spectra of leading neutrons and the Q² dependence of the cross section with the existing ZEUS data.