# Momentum Spectra in the Current Region of the Breit Frame in Deep Inelastic Scattering at HERA

## Introduction

This paper reports the results of a study of the properties of the hadronic final state in positron-proton deep inelastic scattering (DIS). The event kinematics of DIS are determined by the negative square of the four-momentum transfer of the virtual exchanged boson, $`Q^2q^2`$, and the Bjorken scaling variable, $`x=Q^2/2Pq`$, where $`P`$ is the four-momentum of the proton. In the Quark Parton Model (QPM), the interacting quark from the proton carries four-momentum $`xP.`$ The variable $`y`$, the fractional energy transfer to the proton in its rest frame, is related to $`x`$ and $`Q^2`$ by $`yQ^2/xs`$, where $`\sqrt{s}`$ is the positron-proton centre of mass energy.

A natural frame in which to study the dynamics of the hadronic final state in DIS is the Breit frame . In this frame the exchanged virtual boson is completely space-like and has a four-momentum $`q=(0,0,0,Q=2xP^{Breit})(E,p_x,p_y,p_z)`$, where $`P^{Breit}`$ is the momentum of the proton in the Breit frame. The particles produced in the interaction can be assigned to one of two regions: the current region if their $`z`$-momentum in the Breit frame is negative, and the target region if their $`z`$-momentum is positive. The advantage of this frame is that it gives a maximal separation of the incoming and outgoing partons in the QPM. In this model the maximum momentum a particle can have in the current region is $`Q/2.`$

The current region in the Breit frame is analogous to a single hemisphere of $`e^+e^{}`$ annihilation. In $`e^+e^{}q\overline{q}`$ annihilation the two quarks are produced with equal and opposite momenta, $`\pm \sqrt{s}/2.`$ The fragmentation of these quarks can be compared with that of the quark struck from the proton which has outgoing momentum $`Q/2`$ in the Breit frame. In the direction of this struck quark the scaled momentum spectra of the particles, expressed in terms of $`x_p=2p^{Breit}/Q,`$ are expected to have a dependence on $`Q`$ similar to that observed in $`e^+e^{}`$ annihilation  at energy $`\sqrt{s}=Q.`$

Within the modified leading log approximation (MLLA) there are predictions of how the higher order moments of the parton momentum spectra should evolve with energy scale . The parton level predictions depend on two free parameters, a running strong coupling, governed by a QCD scale $`\mathrm{\Lambda },`$ and an energy cut-off, $`Q_0,`$ below which the parton evolution is truncated. The hypothesis of local parton hadron duality (LPHD) , which relates the observed hadron distributions to the calculated parton distributions via a constant of proportionality, is used in conjunction with the predictions of the MLLA allowing the calculation to be directly compared with data.

## Results

The moments of the $`\mathrm{ln}(1/x_p)`$ distributions have been investigated up to the 4th order; the mean $`(l),`$ width $`(w),`$ skewness $`(s)`$ and kurtosis $`(k)`$ were extracted from the distribution by fitting a distorted Gaussian of the following form:

$$\frac{1}{\sigma _{tot}}\frac{d\sigma }{d\mathrm{ln}(1/x_p)}\mathrm{exp}\left(\frac{1}{8}k\frac{1}{2}s\delta \frac{1}{4}(2+k)\delta ^2+\frac{1}{6}s\delta ^3+\frac{1}{24}k\delta ^4\right)$$

where $`\delta =(\mathrm{ln}(1/x_p)l)/w,`$ over a range of 3 units ($`Q^2<160\mathrm{GeV}^2`$) or 4 ($`Q^2160\mathrm{GeV}^2`$) units in $`\mathrm{ln}(1/x_p)`$ around the mean. The equation was motivated by the expression used for the MLLA predictions of the spectra in ref. .

Figure 1 shows the skewness of the $`\mathrm{ln}(1/x_p)`$ spectra as a function of $`\mathrm{ln}(Q).`$ It is evident that the skewness decreases with increasing $`Q.`$ Similar fits performed on $`e^+e^{}`$ data shows a reasonable agreement with our results at high $`Q^2,`$ consistent with the universality of fragmentation for this distribution. The ARIADNE Monte Carlo model  gives a reasonable description of the data. The data are compared with the MLLA predictions of ref. , using a value of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=175\mathrm{MeV},`$ for different values of $`Q_0.`$ The MLLA calculations predict a negative skewness which decreases towards zero with increasing $`Q`$ in the case of the limiting spectra ($`Q_0=\mathrm{\Lambda }`$). This is contrary to the measurements. A reasonable description of the behaviour of the skewness with $`Q`$ can be achieved for a truncated cascade ($`Q_0>\mathrm{\Lambda }`$), but a consistent description of the mean, width, skewness and kurtosis cannot be achieved . A range of $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$ values were investigated and none gave a good description of all the moments. We conclude that the MLLA predictions, assuming LPHD, do not describe the data. It should be noted though that a moments analysis has been performed , taking into account the limitations of the massless assumptions of the MLLA predictions, where good agreement was found between the limiting case of the MLLA and $`\mathrm{e}^+\mathrm{e}^{}`$ data over a large range of energy, $`3.0<\sqrt{s}<133.0\mathrm{GeV}.`$

## Summary

Charged particle distributions have been studied in the current region of the Breit frame in DIS. The moments of the $`\mathrm{ln}(1/x_p)`$ spectra in the current region at high $`Q^2`$ exhibit the same energy scale behaviour as that observed in $`e^+e^{}`$ data. The moments cannot be described by the MLLA calculations together with LPHD.