Future Precision Measurements $F_2(x,Q^2)$, $α_S(Q^2)$ and $xg(x,Q^2)$ at HERA

Abstract

The results are presented of a study of the accuracy one may achieve at HERA in measuring the strong coupling constant $α_s$ and the gluon distribution $xg(x,Q^{2})$ using future data of the structure function $F_{2}(x,Q^{2})$ which are estimated to be accurate at the few % level over the full accessible kinematic region down to $x \simeq 10^{-5}$ and up to $Q^{2} \simeq 50000 GeV^{2}$. The analysis includes simulated proton and deuteron data, and the effect of combining HERA data with fixed target data is discussed.

20 pages Latex, including 7 ps-figures. To appear in: Proc. of the 1996 HERA Physics Workshop