The Valence Quark Distribution of the Pion

The pion structure function is investigated in a simple model, where the pion and its constituent quark fields are coupled through the simplest pseudoscalar coupling. The imaginary part of the forward gamma* pi -> gamma* pi scattering amplitude is evaluated and related to the structure functions. It is shown that the introduction of non-perturbative effects, linked to the size of the pion, allows a connection with the quark distribution. It is predicted that higher-twist terms become negligible for Q^2 larger than ~2 GeV^2, that quarks in the pion have a momentum fraction smaller than in the proton case, and that the momentum sum rule is violated for the pion.