Parton densities beyond perturbation theory Original Research Article

I compute non-perturbative corrections to the kernel governing the evolution of non-singlet parton densities. The model used is QED in the limit of many charged particles. I find an infrared renormalon at b0t = −1, where t is the Borel variable and bo is the first coefficient of the β-function. This term has a non-trivial dependence on the variable x = -q2/(2p · q) and its coefficient scales as x3/(1 − x)2 (p is the momentum of the hadron and q is the momentum transfer). An extrapolation of my results to QCD implies a breakdown of the parton model near the elastic region.