The Proton as Seen by the HERA Collider

Abstract

Deep-inelastic electron–proton (ep) scattering at the HERA collider has been very important in the investigation of the partonic structure of the proton. The neutral- and charged-current cross sections, measured over a large kinematic range, are one of the legacies of the first and so far only ep collider. Here I discuss the combination of H1 and ZEUS data. The HERA data alone can provide parton distribution functions (PDFs) within the framework of perturbative QCD. I also discuss the family of sets of PDFs called HERAPDF2.0 as well as the interpretation of such proton PDFs that characterize proton interactions in momentum space. I then introduce other possible applications of the precision cross sections. In addition, some measurements at HERA provide hints about spatial aspects of the proton. Finally, I present a brief discussion of the connection to nuclear physics.