It is the function used in high energy physics in heavy ion collision. But I am curious whether or not it can be applied for low energy nuclear physics.
Parton distribution functions were developed by Richard Feynman in 1969 to explain the deep inelastic scattering of proton by an accelerated electron.
To probe substructures of proton the required energy scale of the incident electron is of the order of GeVs (109 eV) as opposed to a typical energy scale of Nuclear Physics experiments which is MeV (106 eV). This can be easily understood if we calculate the de Broglie wave lengths of electron at various momentum scales. Because in a deep inelastic scattering, one is aiming at finding substructures of the proton, the de Broglie wavelength of incident electron should be much smaller than the size of the proton, which is of the order of 1 Fermi.
Parton distribution functions were developed by Richard Feynman in 1969 to explain the deep inelastic scattering of proton by an accelerated electron.
To probe substructures of proton the required energy scale of the incident electron is of the order of GeVs (109 eV) as opposed to a typical energy scale of Nuclear Physics experiments which is MeV (106 eV). This can be easily understood if we calculate the de Broglie wave lengths of electron at various momentum scales. Because in a deep inelastic scattering, one is aiming at finding substructures of the proton, the de Broglie wavelength of incident electron should be much smaller than the size of the proton, which is of the order of 1 Fermi.
Dear Churamani!
It seems that I had answered this particular question, when tried to reply on the other your question concerning the "spin crisis".
Of course, you can speak in terms of "constituent structure functions" speaking about low energy scattering! Look at the review by G.B.West in Phys. Rep. 18, No.5 (1975), p.263, in particular at the pages 265-269 (just low energies). The so-called "deep inelastic scattering" experiments are rather old, the first ones had been done in '30 of the last century (see the indicated review).
Geoffrey West did an excellent job necessary for you! Pay attention to the Fig. 15 on the page 276 of the cited paper and ask yourself: can somebody extract from those spectra an info about the arrangement of atoms and the wave function of the hexabenzacoronene molecule, interpreting the spectra in terms of the structure functions?
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