SEMIINCLUSIVE DEEP-INELASTIC ELECTRON-SCATTERING OFF THE DEUTERON ANDTHE NEUTRON TO PROTON STRUCTURE-FUNCTION RATIO

The production of slow nucleons in semi-inclusive deep inelastic elect ron scattering off the deuteron is investigated in the region x greate r than or similar to 0.3. It is shown that within the spectator mechan ism the semi-inclusive cross section exhibits a scaling property even at moderate values of Q(2) (similar to few (GeV/c)(2)) accessible at p resent facilities, like CEBAF. Such a scaling property can be used as a model-independent test of the dominance of the spectator mechanism i tself and provides an interesting tool to investigate the neutron stru cture function. The possibility of extracting model-independent inform ation on the neutron to proton structure function ratio from semi-incl usive experiments is illustrated. The application of the spectator sca ling to semi-inclusive processes off complex nuclei is outlined.