ON THE ORIGIN OF THE RISE OF F2 AT SMALL-X

We have shown that, provided that the nonperturbative input is regular at the right of the omega = 0 singularity of the dominant DGLAP anoma lous dimension, the rise of F-2 at small x, experimentally measured by the averaged observable lambda = [partial derivative InF2/partial der ivative In1/x], is input-independent in the perturbative Q(2) regime a t small x. partial derivative InxF(s)/partial derivative InQ(2) appear s to be more input-dependent in the same range. The GRV-type parameter izations verify these properties. Other models, namely the BFKL kernel (QCD dipoles), DGLAP (with a nonpertubative input singular at the rig ht of the omega = 0) give different predictions for lambda. At moderat e Q(2), there is a possibility of distinguishing these different pertu rbative QCD predictions in the near future.