INCLUSIVE AND DEEP-INELASTIC SCATTERING FROM A DRESSED STRUCTURELESS NUCLEON

Nonperturbative polaron variational methods are used to study inclusiv e scattering in the context of the scalar Wick-Cutkosky model. We deri ve the structure functions for a scalar point-like nucleon surrounded by a cloud of strongly interacting mesons from the Compton amplitude t hat is obtained in a recent variational calculation based on the parti cle (or worldline) representation. In zeroth variational order, a cova riant exponentiated form is obtained, which is identical to the one su ggested by Vineyard for scattering of slow neutrons from quantum liqui ds. In first order, the much richer dependence of the structure functi on on momentum and energy transfer, which emerges, is evaluated numeri cally. We study the Q(2)-evolution and the perturbative as well as the scaling limit of our variational structure functions. Finally, the mo mentum sum rule is derived and evaluated in order to determine the mom entum fraction carried by the neutral mesons inside the dressed nucleo n.