Scaling study of the pion electroproduction cross sections

The H-1(e, e(')pi(+))n cross section was measured for arange of four-momentum transfer up to Q(2)=3.91 GeV2 at values of the invariant mass W above the resonance region. The Q(2) dependence of the longitudinal component was found to be consistent with the Q(2)-scaling prediction for hard exclusive processes. This suggests that the QCD factorization theorem is applicable at rather low values of Q(2). The transverse term falls off slower than the naive Q(-8) expectation and remains appreciable even at Q(2)=3.91 GeV2.