Onset of Quark-Hadron Duality in Pion Electroproduction

Abstract

A large data set of charged-pion (${\ensuremath{\pi}}^{\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}}$) electroproduction from both hydrogen and deuterium targets has been obtained spanning the low-energy residual-mass region. These data conclusively show the onset of the quark-hadron duality phenomenon, as predicted for high-energy hadron electroproduction. We construct several ratios from these data to exhibit the relation of this phenomenon to the high-energy factorization ansatz of electron-quark scattering and subsequent $\mathrm{\text{quark}}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\mathrm{\text{pion}}$ production mechanisms.