SMALL-X PARTON DISTRIBUTIONS OF LARGE HADRONIC TARGETS

A simple and intuitive calculation, based on the semiclassical approxi mation, demonstrates how the large size of a hadronic target introduce s a new perturbative scale into the process of small-x deep inelastic scattering. The above calculation, which is performed in the target re st frame, is compared to the McLerran-Venugopalan model for scattering off large nuclei, which has first highlighted this effect in the infi nite momentum frame. It is shown that the two approaches, i.e., the re st frame based semiclassical calculation and the infinite momentum fra me based McLerran-Venugopalan approach are quantitatively consistent. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. AII rights reserved.