A new approach to the estimation of the quality of phenomenological structure functions

Some properties of structure functions are found on the basis of perturbative QCD. These properties reflect the relation between sea quarks and gluons and, therefore, may be of a more general nature. The properties of several sets of phenomenological structure functions of a proton are analyzed, and it is shown that each set is in agreement with theoretical predictions in those regions of x and Q2 values where direct experimental data were used. Beyond the experimentally studied region, some deviations appear, which can be used to estimate the region of admissible extrapolation of the set under consideration until new experimental data become available. 13 refs., 6 figs