Measurement of Feynman- $$x$$ x spectra of photons and neutrons in the very forward direction in deep-inelastic scattering at HERA

Abstract

Measurements of normalised cross sections for the production of photons and neutrons at very small angles with respect to the proton beam direction in deep-inelastic $$ep$$ scattering at HERA are presented as a function of the Feynman variable $$x_F$$ and of the centre-of-mass energy of the virtual photon-proton system $$W$$ . The data are taken with the H1 detector in the years 2006 and 2007 and correspond to an integrated luminosity of $$131~\text {pb}^{-1}$$ . The measurement is restricted to photons and neutrons in the pseudorapidity range $$\eta >7.9$$ and covers the range of negative four momentum transfer squared at the positron vertex $$6<Q^2<100$$ GeV $$^2$$ , of inelasticity $$0.05<y<0.6$$ and of $$70<W<245~$$ GeV. To test the Feynman scaling hypothesis the $$W$$ dependence of the $$x_F$$ dependent cross sections is investigated. Predictions of deep-inelastic scattering models and of models for hadronic interactions of high energy cosmic rays are compared to the measured cross sections.