We present a new measurement of the spin-dependent structure function g 1 d of the deuteron in deep inelastic scattering of 190 GeV polarised muons on polarised deuterons, in the kinematic range 0.003 < x < 0.7 and 1 GeV 2 < Q 2 < 60 GeV 2 . This structure function is found to be negative at small x . The first moment Γ 1 d =∫ 0 1 g 1 d d x evaluated at Q 0 2 = 10 GeV 2 is 0.034 ± 0.009 (stat.) ± 0.006 (syst.). This value is below the Ellis-Jaffe sum rule prediction by three standard deviations. Using our earlier determination of Γ 1 p , we obtain Γ 1 p − Γ 1 n = 0.199 ± 0.038 which agrees with the Bjorken sum rule.
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