Abstract

The production of leading neutrons, where the neutron carries a large fraction x L of the incoming proton’s longitudinal momentum, is studied in deep-inelastic positron-proton scattering at HERA. The data were taken with the H1 detector in the years 2006 and 2007 and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 122 pb−1. The semi-inclusive cross section is measured in the phase space defined by the photon virtuality 6<Q 2<100 GeV2, Bjorken scaling variable 1.5⋅10−4<x<3⋅10−2, longitudinal momentum fraction 0.32<x L <0.95 and neutron transverse momentum p T <0.2 GeV. The leading neutron structure function, , and the fraction of deep-inelastic scattering events containing a leading neutron are studied as a function of Q 2, x and x L . Assuming that the pion exchange mechanism dominates leading neutron production, the data provide constraints on the shape of the pion structure function.