Muon-Proton Inelastic Scattering and Vector Dominance

Abstract

Results from muon-proton inelastic scattering are used to investigate the form of ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{\mathrm{exp}}({q}^{2}, K)$, the quantity commonly called the "virtual photon-proton total cross section." Fits to ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{\mathrm{exp}}$ have been made for photon energies 0.6\ensuremath{\le}6.5, and 4-momentum transfer squared $|{q}^{2}|$ up to 1.2 ${(\mathrm{G}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V}/\mathit{c})}^{2}$. Measurements of the real photon-proton total cross section ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{\ensuremath{\gamma}p}(K)$ have been included in the fits. The forms of rho-dominance theory which predict ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{\mathrm{exp}}({q}^{2}, K)=\frac{{\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{\ensuremath{\gamma}p}(K)}{(1+\frac{|{q}^{2}|}{{{m}_{\ensuremath{\rho}}}^{2}})}$ are in agreement with the data.