ACCIDENTAL XI-SCALING AS A SIGNATURE OF NUCLEAR EFFECTS AT X-GREATER-THAN-1

We propose an interpretation of the xi-scaling behavior of nuclear str ucture functions observed at Bjorken x > 1 and Q(2) less than or simil ar to 4(GeV/c)(2). We show that at xi greater than or similar to 1, xi -scaling might arise accidentally because of the approximate cancellat ion of two different Q(2)-dependent effects, namely final state intera ctions and the effects implicit in the choice of the scaling variable xi. We provide a new convolution formula for the nuclear structure fun ction in terms of xi and make predictions for the kinematical regions where final state interactions are expected to be, small and the sugge sted balancing of scaling violations is expected to break down. Our an alysis is aimed at the final goal of clarifying the range of applicabi lity of local duality ideas in nuclei.