New data and the hard pomeron

Abstract New structure-function data are in excellent agreement with the existence of a hard pomeron, with intercept about 1.4. It gives a very economical description of the data. Having fixed 2 parameters from the data for the real-photon cross section σ γp , we need just 5 further parameters to fit the data for F 2 ( x , Q 2 ) with x ⩽0.001. The available data range from Q 2 =0.045 to 35 GeV 2 . With guesses consistent with dimensional counting for the x dependences of our three separate terms, the fit extends well to larger x and to Q 2 =5000 GeV 2 . With no additional parameters, it gives a good description of data for the charm structure function F 2 c ( x , Q 2 ) from Q 2 =0 to 130 GeV 2 . The two pomerons also give a good description of both the W and the t dependence of γp → J / ψp .