Measurement of the spin structure function g(2)(x,Q(2)) for the neutron

The asymmetry $A\sb2(x,Q\sp2)$ and structure function $g\sb2(x,Q\sp2)$ were measured for the neutron using deep inelastic electron scattering. The measurement was made using the 50 GeV longitudinally polarized electron beam at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. The target consisted of gaseous $\sp3$He which was polarized through spin exchange with optically pumped rubidium vapor. Data were taken simultaneously with two magnetic spectrometers fixed at 2.75$\sp\circ$ and 5.5$\sp\circ$ scattering angles, covering a combined kinematic range of $0.014\le x\le0.7$ and $1.0\le Q\sp2\le17.0$ (GeV/c)$\sp2.$ The $A\sb2$ data were found to be well bounded by the positivity constraint $\vert A\sb2\vert\le\sqrt{R},$ and most of the data were consistent with zero. The $g\sb2$ structure function was found to be consistent with zero and with the twist-2 Wandzura-Wilczek prediction. In addition, the Operator Product Expansion twist-3 matrix element $d\sb2$ was calculated from the data and found to be consistent with all theoretical predictions.