VECTOR-MESON DOMINANCE AND HIGH-ENERGY ELECTRON-PROTON INELASTIC SCATTERING

A vector-meson dominance model for high-energy ep inelastic scattering is proposed. We predict that at high values of the missing mass (>2.5 BeV) the ratio of the longitudinal to the transverse cross section is given by (q2m2[1-(q22mp)]2, where is expected to be of the order of unity. Scale invariance (in the sense of Bjorken) is satisfied at very high q2. The model may adequately account for the remarkably large cross section recently observed in the deep inelastic region. © 1969 The American Physical Society.