A Kinematically Complete Measurement of the Proton Structure Function F2 in the Resonance Region and Evaluation of Its Moments

We measured the inclusive electron-proton cross section in the nucleon resonance region (W < 2.5 GeV) at momentum transfers Q2 below 4.5 (GeV/c)2 with the CLAS detector. The large acceptance of CLAS allowed for the first time the measurement of the cross section in a large, contiguous two-dimensional range of Q2 and x, making it possible to perform an integration of the data at fixed Q2 over the whole significant x-interval. From these data we extracted the structure function F2 and, by including other world data, we studied the Q2 evolution of its moments, Mn(Q2), in order to estimate higher twist contributions. The small statistical and systematic uncertainties of the CLAS data allow a precise extraction of the higher twists and demand significant improvements in theoretical predictions for a meaningful comparison with new experimental results.