Measurement of the nucleon structure function using high energy muons

The inclusive deep inelastic scattering of muons on nucleons in iron using beams of 93 and 215 GeV muons has been measured. To perform this measurement, the Multimuon Spectrometer (MMS) in the muon beam at Fermilab has been built and measured. The MMS is a magnetized iron target/spectrometer/calorimeter which provides 5.61 kg/cm2 of target, 9% momentum resolution on scattered muons, and a direct measure of total hadronic energy with resolution sigma/sub nu/ = 1.4√nu(GeV). In the distributed target, the average beam energies at the interaction are 88.0 and 209 GeV. Using the known form of the radiatively-corrected electromagnetic cross section, the structure function F2(x,Q2) with a typical precision of 2% over the range 5 < Q2 < 200 GeV2/c2 is extracted. Measurements are compared to the predictions of lowest order quantum chromodynamics (QCD) and a best fit value of the QCD scale parameter Λ/sub LO/ = 230 +/- 40/sup stat/ +/- 80/sup syst/ MeV/c, assuming R = 0 and without applying Fermi motion corrections is found. By comparing the cross sections at the two beam energies, R = -0.06 +/- 0.06/sup stat/ +/- 0.11/sup syst/ is measured. The measurements show qualitative agreement with QCD, but quantitative comparison is hampered by phenomenological uncertainties. The experimental situation is quite good, with substantial agreement between these measurements and those of others