Deep Inelastic Scattering

This book provides an up-to-date, self-contained account of deep inelastic scattering in high-energy physics, intended for graduate students and physicists new to the subject. It covers the classic results which led to the quark-parton model of hadrons and the establishment of quantum chromodynamics as the theory of the strong nuclear force, in addition to new vistas in the subject opened up by the electron-proton collider HERA. The extraction of parton momentum distribution functions, a key input for physics at hadron colliders such as the Tevatron at Fermi Lab and the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, is described in detail. The challenges of the HERA data at 'low x' are described and possible explanations in terms of gluon dynamics and other models outlined. Other chapters cover: jet production at large momentum transfer and the determination of the strong coupling constant, electroweak interactions at very high momentum transfers, the extension of deep inelastic techniques to include hadronic probes, a summary of fully polarised inelastic scattering and the spin structure of the nucleon, and finally a brief account of methods in searching for signals 'beyond the standard model'.

1 - Introduction
2 - The quark-parton model
3 - Quantum chromodynamics (QCD) and formal methods
4 - QCD improved parton model
5 - Deep inelastic scattering (DIS) experiments and data
6 - Extraction of parton densities
7 - Alpha s from scaling violations and jets at high Q squared
8 - DIS at high Q squared
9 - DIS at low x
10 - Hadron induced DIS
11 - Polarized DIS
12 - Beyond the standard model
A - Dirac equations and some other conventions
B - Phase space and cross-sections
C - DIS cross-sections
D - Feynman rules
E - Monte Carlo codes
F - Data sources
G - Parton parameterizations