Electron-deuteron deep-inelastic scattering with spectator nucleon tagging and final-state interactions at intermediate x

Understand

We consider electron-deuteron deep-inelastic scattering (DIS) with detection of a proton in the nuclear fragmentation region ("spectator tagging") as a method for extracting the free neutron structure functions and studying their nuclear modifications.

• Such measurements could be performed at a future Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) with suitable forward detectors.
• The measured proton recoil momentum (~< 100 MeV in the deuteron rest frame) specifies the deuteron configuration during the high-energy process and permits a controlled theoretical treatment of nuclear effects.
• Nuclear and nucleonic structure are separated using methods of light-front quantum mechanics.