# Measurement of the Proton Structure Function 𝐹₂ and of the Total Photon-Proton Cross Section 𝜎ₜₒₜ^{𝛾^∗⁢𝑝} at Very Low 𝑄² and Very Low 𝑥

## 1 INTRODUCTION

Since the first measurement from ZEUS  using 1995 data, the proton structure function $`F_2`$ at low $`Q^2`$ has continued to generate a lot of interest. Various groups, among them ZEUS , used the data to study the transition between photoproduction and deep inelastic scattering, others obtained improved parameterizations of $`F_2`$ .

At this workshop, a new measurement of $`F_2`$ is presented in the range $`0.045\mathrm{GeV}^2<Q^2<0.65\mathrm{GeV}^2`$ and $`610^7<x<110^3`$, where $`x`$ denotes the Bjorken scaling variable; $`Q^2`$ is the four-momentum transfer squared. One also defines $`y`$, the relative energy transfer to the proton in its rest frame, and $`W`$, the photon-proton center-of-mass energy. The data were taken with special detector components and triggers during six weeks in 1997, yielding an integrated luminosity of $`3.9\mathrm{pb}^1`$. The new analysis covers a larger kinematic region and has a higher precision than the previous one .

## 2 ANALYSIS

### 2.1 Scattered positron reconstruction

The scattered positron is reconstructed in the Beam Pipe Calorimeter (BPC) and Beam Pipe Tracker (BPT) of the ZEUS detector. The BPC has been installed in 1995 and was used for the previous measurement of $`F_2`$ at low $`Q^2`$. In 1997, the BPT was installed in front of the BPC.

The BPC is a small calorimeter that detects positrons with a scattering angle of 1–2<sup>o</sup> w.r.t. the positron beam direction. Its energy resolution is $`\sigma _E=0.17\sqrt{E}`$. The energy scale is known to $`\pm 0.3\%`$, the non-linearity is less than $`\pm 1\%`$ at $`4\mathrm{GeV}`$. The shower position in the BPC is reconstructed with a resolution of $`500\mu \mathrm{m}`$ at $`27.5\mathrm{GeV}`$.

The BPT consists of two silicon microstrip detectors. A track is reconstructed as the straight line through two hits in the BPT, providing the positron scattering angle, its impact point on the BPC and the event vertex. The uncertainty of the absolute BPT position is less than $`\pm 200\mu \mathrm{m}`$. The tracking efficiency is known to $`\pm 1.5\%`$.

### 2.2 Kinematic reconstruction

The event kinematics are reconstructed with the electron method, i.e. from positron variables only, for $`y>0.08`$, where it gives the best resolution. For $`y<0.08`$, the $`e\mathrm{\Sigma }`$ method  is used, which improves the $`y`$ reconstruction by combining positron and hadronic final state variables.

### 2.3 Physics simulation

DJANGOH 1.1  and RAPGAP 2.06  are used to simulate non-diffractive respectively diffractive events. The samples are mixed in a proportion determined from the data. This is expected to give the best possible description of the hadronic final state, which is crucial at high $`y`$ and low $`Q^2`$, where the fraction of diffractive events rejected by trigger or offline cuts is significantly different from non-diffractive events.

### 2.4 Event selection

The event selection is based predominantly on the requirement of a well reconstructed positron in BPC and BPT. The analysis covers a kinematic region between $`0.045\mathrm{GeV}^2<Q^2<0.65\mathrm{GeV}^2`$ and $`610^7<x<110^3`$, corresponding to $`25\mathrm{GeV}<W<270\mathrm{GeV}`$ or $`0.007<y<0.8`$. Measuring at high $`y`$ was made possible by the use of the BPT, which serves to suppress background at low scattered positron energies.

## 3 RESULTS

### 3.1 Determination of $`𝑭_\mathrm{𝟐}`$ and $`𝝈_{\mathrm{𝐭𝐨𝐭}}^{𝜸^{\mathbf{}}𝒑}`$

$`F_2`$ is extracted using an iterated bin-to-bin unfolding method and converted into a total cross section via $`\sigma _{\mathrm{tot}}^{\gamma ^{}p}=4\pi ^2\alpha /Q^2F_2`$. The measured cross section depends also weakly on $`F_L`$, which is taken from the BKS model , yielding an effect of at most $`3\%`$. The results are shown in figs. 1 and 2. In the region of this analysis, the cross section becomes nearly flat as a function of $`Q^2`$.

The data are displayed together with two fits (ALLM97 , DL98 ) that have already included the 1995 measurement, as well as with the older DL  curve. While DL98 gives the best description at high $`W`$, it undershoots the data at low $`W`$. DL seems to describe the shape better over the whole $`W`$ range. ALLM97 underestimates the cross section at low $`Q^2`$ by 10–15%. The best description of the data is given by the ZEUS REGGE 97 fit presented in section 3.3.

At low $`W`$, the analysis has reached kinematic overlap with E665. While at $`Q^2=0.65\mathrm{GeV}^2`$ the agreement is good, it deterioriates at lower $`Q^2`$.

### 3.2 Systematic uncertainties

Fifteen systematic checks were performed to study the stability of the results. The average statistical error is $`2.6\%`$, the average systematic error $`3.3\%`$. In most bins, the systematic error is similar to the statistical one. Only the two highest $`W`$ bins are dominated by systematic effects, mostly due to the uncertainty of the fraction of diffractive events. The overall normalization uncertainty of $`\pm 1.8\%`$ is due to the luminosity measurement.

### 3.3 Phenomenological fits

With the precise $`F_2`$ data sample presented here, the GVDM and Regge-inspired fits as published in  have been repeated.

The first step is to make an assumption about the $`Q^2`$ dependence of the data in order to extrapolate them to $`Q^2=0`$, which is taken from the GVDM prediction on $`\sigma _T`$, giving $`\sigma _{\mathrm{tot}}^{\gamma ^{}p}(W^2,Q^2)=m_0^2/(m_0^2+Q^2)\sigma _{\mathrm{tot}}^{\gamma p}(W^2)`$. Fitting instead both the $`\sigma _T`$ and $`\sigma _L`$ terms changes the extrapolated values only within their statistical errors.

In the second step, the $`W`$ dependence of $`\sigma _{\mathrm{tot}}^{\gamma p}(W^2)`$ is explored. The extrapolations from the first step are compared to the direct photoproduction cross section measurements by ZEUS and H1  and to previous data from other experiments at lower $`W`$. This comparison is shown in fig. 3, together with Regge-type fits of the form $`\sigma _{\mathrm{tot}}^{\gamma p}(W^2)=A_{\mathrm{I}\mathrm{R}}W^{2(\alpha _{\mathrm{I}\mathrm{R}}1)}+A_{\mathrm{I}\mathrm{P}}W^{2(\alpha _{\mathrm{I}\mathrm{P}}1)}`$, and with the DL98 and ALLM97 parameterizations. The extrapolated cross sections are larger than the directly measured ones. Whether this is a feature of the assumed $`Q^2`$ dependence for the extrapolation or of the direct cross section measurements, remains to be resolved in the future.

The combination of the two fits is shown as ZEUS REGGE 97 in figs. 1 and 2.

## 4 CONCLUSIONS

The ZEUS collaboration has measured the proton structure function $`F_2`$ in the range $`0.045\mathrm{GeV}^2<Q^2<0.65\mathrm{GeV}^2`$ and $`610^7<x<110^3`$ with unprecedented precision. The data can be described and extrapolated by a simple GVDM and Regge inspired parameterization.