Small x behavior of parton distributions. A study of higher twist effects

Higher twist corrections to the structure function F_2 at small x are studied for the case of a flat initial condition for the twist-two QCD evolution in the next-to-leading order approximation. We present an analytical parameterization of the contributions from the twist-two and higher twist operators of the Wilson operator product expansion. Higher twist terms are evaluated using two different approaches, one motivated by BFKL and the other motivated by the renormalon formalism. The results of the latter approach are in very good agreement with deep inelastic scattering data from HERA.