[en] We discuss deep inelastic scattering at low x as a critical phenomenon in 2 + 1 space - time dimensions. QCD (SU₂) near the light cone becomes a critical theory in the limit of x → 0 with a correlation mass m(x) ∝ x^ν/2. We conjecture that the perturbative dipole wave function of the virtual photon in the region 1/Q < x_{perpendicular} < 1/m obeys correlation scaling Ψ ∝ (x_{perpendicular})^-(1+n) before exponentially decaying for distances larger than the inverse correlation mass. Using this behavior combined with an x - independent dipole proton cross section we calculate the proton structure function and compare with the experimental data