Moments of structure functions and experimental tests of QCD

Simple assumptions which have little or no connection to quantum chromodynamics, lead to upper and lower bounds for the slope of the graph for log M_N′ versus log M_N, where M_N is the Nth moment of the deep inelastic structure function xF₃(x, q²). The published results of the CDHS and BEBC collaborations cover the entire range allowed by our bounds and therefore cannot be considered as evidence for the validity of QCD.