QCD traveling waves phenomenology revisited

Abstract

In this paper, we review and update the Amaral-Gay Ducati-Betemps-Soyez saturation model, by testing it against the recent H1-ZEUS combined data on deep inelastic scattering, including heavy quarks in the dipole amplitude. We obtain that this model, which is based on traveling wave solutions of the Balitsky-Kovchegov equation and built in the momentum space framework, yields very accurate descriptions of the reduced cross section, σ r ( x , y , Q 2 ) , as well as DIS structure functions such as F 2 ( x , Q 2 ) and F L ( x , Q 2 ) , all measured at HERA. Additionally, it provides good descriptions of heavy quark structure functions, F c c 2 and F b b 2 at small- x and Q 2 ≲ 60 GeV 2 . We also use the improved model to make predictions for structure functions to be measured in the near future at LHeC.