Direct observation of quark-hadron duality in the free neutron F-2 structure function

Using the recently published data from the BONuS(Barely Off-shell Nucleon Structure) experiment at Jefferson Lab, which utilized a spectator tagging technique to extract the inclusive electron-free neutron scattering cross section, we obtain the first direct observation of quark-hadron duality in the neutron F-2 structure function. The data are used to reconstruct the lowest few (N = 2, 4, and 6) moments of F-2 in the three prominent nucleon resonance regions, as well as the moments integrated over the entire resonance region. Comparison with moments computed from global parametrizations of parton distribution functions suggest that quark-hadron duality holds locally for the neutron in the second and third resonance regions down to Q(2) approximate to 1 GeV2, with violations possibly up to 20% observed in the first resonance region