Nucleon effective mass and the A dependence of structure functions

The nucleon effective mass was successfully used, as the only free parameter, to adjust the ratio R(A) of structure functions measured in a nucleus of mass number A and in the deuteron, for each A value in the SLAC set of experimental data. The resulting A dependence of the effective mass, being linear in A/sup -1/3/, is consistent with the behavior expected from nuclear structure considerations. The extrapolated value of the effective mass for nuclear matter agrees with previous estimations