The Gluon Density of the Proton at Low $x$ from a QCD Analysis of $F_2$

We present a QCD analysis of the proton structure function $F_2$ measured by the H1 experiment at HERA, combined with data from previous fixed target experiments. The gluon density is extracted from the scaling violations of $F_2$ in the range $2\cdot 10^{-4}<x<3\cdot 10^{-2}$ and compared with an approximate solution of the QCD evolution equations. The gluon density is found to rise steeply with decreasing $x$.