Some experimental consequences of asymptotically free field theories

Several experimental consequences of non-Abelian asymptotically free gauge theories are studied, in particular, second order corrections to the moments of the nonsinglet pieces of the structure functions are calculated. These results are then used to derive corrections to sum rules as well as to obtain direct functional relations between the structure functions. It is found that, in general, the second order corrections involve calculable and uncalculable constants, but the latter can be either estimated or eliminated by considering suitable combinations of structure functions. It is also shown that some of the correction terms increase as one considers higher moments. This remarkable fact, which is likely to persist in higher orders, suggests that all the functional relations that are derived will have questionable validity near threshold; however, away from this region, where higher order corrections are negligible, all these relations will provide an important test of these theories. Finally, it is shown that no similar predictions can be derived for the singlet pieces of the structure functions, since they always involve uncalculable constants