  We investigate the feasibility of analyzing deep inelastic structure
functions in Hamiltonian formalism by combining the light-front BJL limit of
high energy amplitudes and the Fock space (multi-parton) description of
hadrons. This study is motivated by some of the theoretical questions emerging
from the ongoing nonperturbative/perturbative studies in light-front QCD and
also by current problems in the interface of perturbative/nonperturbative QCD.
In this preliminary study, we address the unpolarized structure function $F_2$.
Our starting point is the expression for the quark structure function as the
Fourier transform of the expectation value of the {\it good component} of a
bilocal current in the target state. By expanding the target state in a set of
multi-particle Fock states, the structure function is expressed as the sum of
squares of multi-parton wavefunctions integrated over independent longitudinal
and transverse parton momenta. Utilizing the fact that the multi-particle Fock
states are connected with each other by the light-front QCD Hamiltonian, we
study questions of cancellation of collinear singularities, factorization of
mass singularities, and the logarithmic scaling violations in the Hamiltonian
picture. In this paper the essential features of the formalism are illustrated
utilizing the calculation of the structure function of a dressed quark and the
evolution of the valence part of the $q {\bar q}$ bound state structure
function up to order $g^2$.
