Abstract. With recent advances in the precision of inclusive lepton–nuclear scattering experiments, it has become apparent that comparable improvements are needed in the accuracy of the theoretical analysis tools. In particular, when extracting parton distribution functions in the large-x region, it is crucial to correct the data for effects associated with the nonzero mass of the target. We present here a comprehensive review of these target mass corrections (TMC) to structure functions data, summarizing the relevant formulas for TMCs in electromagnetic and weak processes. We include a full analysis of both hadronic and partonic masses, and trace how these effects appear in the operator product expansion and the factorized parton model formalism, as well as their limitations when applied to data in the x → 1 limit. We evaluate the numerical effects of TMCs on various structure functions, and compare fits to data with and without these corrections.

Print publication: Issue 5 (May 2008)
Received 27 September 2007
Published 18 March 2008