The production of energetic neutrons in $ep$ collisions has been studied with the ZEUS detector at HERA. The neutron energy and $p_T^2$ distributions were measured with a forward neutron calorimeter and tracker in a $40 \pb^{-1}$ sample of inclusive deep inelastic scattering (DIS) data and a $6 \pb^{-1}$ sample of photoproduction data. The neutron yield in photoproduction is suppressed relative to DIS for the lower neutron energies and the neutrons have a steeper $p_T^2$ distribution, consistent with the expectation from absorption models. The distributions are compared to HERA measurements of leading protons. The neutron energy and transverse-momentum distributions in DIS are compared to Monte Carlo simulations and to the predictions of particle exchange models. Models of pion exchange incorporating absorption and additional secondary meson exchanges give a good description of the data.
Normalized double differential cross sections for leading neutron production in the photoproduction sample. Statistical errors only are given.
The production of leading neutrons, where the neutron carries a large fraction x_L of the incoming proton's longitudinal momentum, is studied in deep-inelastic positron-proton scattering at HERA. The data were taken with the H1 detector in the years 2006 and 2007 and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 122 pb^{-1}. The semi-inclusive cross section is measured in the phase space defined by the photon virtuality 6 < Q^2 < 100 GeV^2, Bjorken scaling variable 1.5x10^{-4} < x < 3x10^{-2}, longitudinal momentum fraction 0.32 < x_L < 0.95 and neutron transverse momentum p_T < 0.2 GeV. The leading neutron structure function, F_2^{LN(3)}(Q^2,x,x_L), and the fraction of deep-inelastic scattering events containing a leading neutron are studied as a function of Q^2, x and x_L. Assuming that the pion exchange mechanism dominates leading neutron production, the data provide constraints on the shape of the pion structure function.
The semi-inclusive leading neutron structure function for Q**2.
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