Measurement of the hadronic structure function of the photon

The hadronic structure function of the photon, Fγ 2 , is measured using a data sample of 52.9 pb−1, recorded with the ALEPH detector at the LEP storage ring in 1997. Approximately 2100 single-tag two-photon events at a centre-of-mass energy of √s ≈ 183GeV are selected from this data sample. The data are analysed in the two Q2 ranges from 7 to 24 and from 17 to 200 GeV2 with mean values of 13.7 and 56.5 GeV2 . The measured distributions of kinematic variables are compared to different model predictions, based on the HERWIG and PHOJET Monte Carlo generators. To determine Fγ 2(x,Q2), a two-dimensional unfolding method employing the principle of maximum entropy is used. In addition to the Bjorken variable x, the variable E17 is introduced, denoting the hadronic energy measured in the polar angle range below 17◦ and is also used in the unfolding. The two-dimensional unfolding method significantly reduces the systematic errors compared to one-dimensional methods which is shown by various unfolding tests. The obtained results for Fγ 2(x,Q2) are in good agreement with the parametrisations GRV-LO from Gl¨uck, Reya and Vogt and SaS 1d from Schuler and Sjostrand.