Trident electroproduction of muon pairs in deep-inelastic inclusive reactions

Abstract

We explore the possibility of deriving the scaling in the field-theoretic parton model for the process e+p→e+μ⁺+μ^-+"anything" with the electron as well as the muon pair detected. The cross section for the above process is analyzed in terms of invariant structure functions. We show that the contribution of the absorptive part of the amplitude to the structure functions scales in the parton model. This type of process may provide another domain for comparison of the models of highly inelastic electrodynamic processes. In particular, so far as scaling is concerned, the results of the parton model are similar to those obtained from bilocal algebra of currents.