Valence quark ratio in the proton

Beginning with precise data on the ratio of structure functions in deep inelastic scattering (DIS) from 3He and 3H, collected on the domain 0.19≤xB≤0.83, where xB is the Bjorken scaling variable, we employ a robust method for extrapolating such data to arrive at a model-independent result for the xB=1 value of the ratio of neutron and proton structure functions. Combining this with information obtained in analyses of DIS from nuclei, corrected for target-structure dependence, we arrive at a prediction for the proton's valence-quark ratio: dv/uv|xB→1=0.230(57). Requiring consistency with this result presents a challenge to many descriptions of proton structure.