DETERMINATION OF THE ANOMALOUS DIMENSION OF GLUONIC OPERATORS IN DEEP-INELASTIC SCATTERING AT O(1 N-F)/

Using large Nf methods we compute the anomalous dimension of the predo minantly gluonic flavour singlet twist-2 composite operator which aris es in the operator product expansion used in deep inelastic scattering . We obtain a d-dimensional expression for it which depends on the ope rator moment n. Its expansion in powers of epsilon = (4 - d)/2 agrees with the explicit exact three-loop <(MS)over bar> results available fo r n less than or equal to 8 and allows us to determine some new inform ation on the explicit n-dependence of the three and higher order coeff icients. In particular the n-dependence of the three-loop anomalous di mension gamma(gg)(a) is determined in the C-2(G) sector at O(1/N-f). ( C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.