Vector-Meson Dominance and High-Energy Electron-Proton Inelastic Scattering

A vector-meson dominance model for high-energy $\mathrm{ep}$ inelastic scattering is proposed. We predict that at high values of the missing mass (>2.5 BeV) the ratio of the longitudinal to the transverse cross section is given by $\xi (\frac{q^2}{m_{\rho }^{}{}_{}{}^2}{[1-(\frac{q^2}{2m_p\nu }\left)\right]}^2$, where $\xi$ is expected to be of the order of unity. Scale invariance (in the sense of Bjorken) is satisfied at very high $q^2$. The model may adequately account for the remarkably large cross section recently observed in the deep inelastic region.