y scaling as a probe of nuclear light-cone dynamics

Abstract

The y scaling exhibited in quasielastic electron scattering on nuclei is shown to occur in the same kinematic limit as x scaling in deep-inelastic lepton-nucleon scattering. Using the impulse approximation in a relativistic model, we demonstrate that the scaling function F(y) can be interpreted as the nucleon light-cone momentum distribution and the scaling variable y is related to the light-cone momentum t+ of the nucleon. We also derive the convolution formula for deep-inelastic lepton-nucleus scattering and show that the same F(y) can be extracted from the experimental structure functions of the nucleon and nuclei.