Geometric scaling in the Color Glass Condensate Original Research Article

Geometric scaling is a novel phenomenon observed in deep inelastic scattering (DIS) at small χ: the total γ∗p cross section depends upon the two variables Q2 and χ only via their combination ζ ≡ Q2R02(χ), with R02(χ) ∞ χλ. We show that this scaling can be naturally understood as a manifestation of gluon saturation based on the effective theory for high density matter of saturated gluons, namely, the Color Glass Condensate (CGC).