Cross sections for deep-inelastic electron scattering from liquid deuterium, gaseous ${}_{}{}^4{}_{}{}^{}\mathrm{He}$, and solid Be, C, Al, Ca, Fe, Ag, and Au targets were measured at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center using electrons with energies ranging from 8 to 24.5 GeV. These data cover a range in the Bjorken variable $x$ from 0.089 to 0.8, and in momentum transfer $Q^2$ from 2 to 15 ${(\mathrm{G}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{V}/\mathit{c})}^2$. The ratios of cross sections per nucleon ${\left(\frac{{\sigma }^A}{{\sigma }^d}\right)}_{\mathrm{is}}$ for isoscalar nuclei have been extracted from the data. These ratios are greater than unity in the range $0.1<x<\mathrm{}0.3\mathrm{}$, while for $0.3<x<\mathrm{}0.8\mathrm{}$ they are less than unity and decrease logarithmically with atomic weight $A$, or linearly with average nuclear density. No $Q^2$ dependence in the ratios was observed over the kinematic range of the data. These results are compared to various theoretical predictions.

• Received 30 September 1993

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.49.4348