Diffractive rho-meson Leptoproduction on Polarized Nucleon as a Way to Measure the Polarized Gluon Distribution

The amplitude of diffractive $\rho$ (and open quark) leptoproduction on a polarized target is calculated in the leading log approximation of pQCD using the hadron-parton duality hypothesis. The spin-spin asymmetry is expressed in terms of the spin dependent gluon and quark structure functions in the small $x$ region. Therefore the $\gamma^*+p\to \rho +p$ reaction provides a promising tool to study the spin dependent gluon distribution $\Delta G(x,q^2)$.Comment: 13 pages, LaTeX, 2 figure

An independent estimate of the triple-Pomeron coupling

The value of the important triple-Pomeron coupling is estimated by an unorthodox procedure using the known diffractive parton distribution functions. The result is g_{3P}\simeq 0.2g_N, where g_N is the Pomeron-nucleon coupling. This is in excellent agreement with an independent determination, g_{3P}\simeq 0.2g_N, previously obtained by analysing the available data in the triple-Regge region with absorptive effects taken into account.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

Upsilon photoproduction at HERA compared to estimates of perturbative QCD

We estimate the cross section for gamma p -> Upsilon p by two independent methods. First, by studying the corrections to the naive leading-order QCD formula and, second, by using parton-hadron duality. The estimates are in good agreement with each other and with the recent measurements of the cross section at HERA.Comment: 9 pages, LaTeX, one figur

Optimal choice of factorization scales for the description of jet production at the LHC

To obtain more precise parton distribution functions (PDFs) it is important to include data on inclusive high transverse energy jet production in the global parton analyses. These data have high statistics and the NNLO terms in the perturbative QCD (pQCD) description are now available. Our aim is to reduce the uncertainty in the comparison of the jet data with pQCD. To ensure the best convergence of the pQCD series it is important to choose the appropriate factorization scales, μFμF . We show that it is possible to absorb and resum in the incoming PDFs and fragmentation function (D) an essential part of the higher αsαs -order corrections by determining the ‘optimal’ values of μFμF . We emphasize that it is necessary to optimize different factorization scales for the various factors in the cross section: indeed, both of the PDFs, and also the fragmentation function, have their own optimal scale. We show how the values of these scales can be calculated for the LO (NLO) part of the pQCD prediction of the cross section based on the theoretically known NLO (NNLO) corrections. After these scales are fixed at their optimal values, the residual factorization scale dependence is much reduced

Elastic and diffractive scattering at the LHC

Inspired by the new TOTEM data on elastic pp scattering at 13 TeV, we study the possibility to describe all the diffractive collider data (, , ) in a wide interval of energy (0.0625 to 13 TeV) in the framework of a two-channel eikonal model. We show that a satisfactory description can be achieved without an odd-signature (Odderon) exchange contribution. We consider the possible role of the QCD Odderon which may improve the description of ρ and discuss the importance of the odd-signature term if the amplitude were to exceed the black disc limit

Unintegrated parton distributions

We describe how to calculate the parton distributions fa(x,kt2,μ2), unintegrated over the parton transverse momentum kt, from auxiliary functions ha(x,kt2), which satisfy single-scale evolution equations. The formalism embodies both DGLAP and BFKL contributions, and accounts for the angular ordering which comes from coherence effects in gluon emission. We check that the unintegrated distributions give the measured values of the deep inelastic structure function F2(x,Q2)

Simultaneous QCD analysis of diffractive and inclusive DIS data

We perform a NLO QCD analysis of deep-inelastic scattering data, in which we account for absorptive corrections. These corrections are determined from a simultaneous analysis of diffractive deep-inelastic data. The absorptive effects are found to enhance the size of the gluon distribution at small x, such that a negative input gluon distribution at Q^2 = 1 GeV^2 is no longer required. We discuss the problem that the gluon distribution is valence-like at low scales, whereas the sea quark distribution grows with decreasing x. Our study hints at the possible importance of power corrections for Q^2 \simeq 1--2 GeV^2.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures. Version published as a Rapid Communication in Phys. Rev.

Diffractive Processes at the LHC

We consider diffractive processes which can be measured at the LHC. Analysis of diffractive events will give unique information about the high energy asymptotics of hadron scattering. In semihard diffraction one may study the partonic structure of the Pomeron. Central Exclusive Diffractive production provides a possibility to investigate the new particles (Higgs bosons, SUSY particles,...) in an exceptionally clean environment.Comment: 12 pages, To be published in the Proc. of the Gribov-75 Memorial Workshop, Budapest, May 200

Higher twists in deep inelastic scattering

We perform an exploratory study of higher twist contributions to deep inelastic scattering. We estimate the size of two major sources of higher twist, namely absorptive corrections and the vector meson dominance (VMD) contribution. We find that they give a sizeable higher twist component of F_2. For example at x = 0.01 it is about 8% (17%) at Q^2 = 10 GeV^2 (4 GeV^2), reaching up to 27% at x = 10^{-4} and Q^2 = 4 GeV^2. At the smaller x value the largest contribution comes from absorptive corrections, while at the larger values of x the VMD term dominates.Comment: The sign of the gluon rescattering twist-4 component has been corrected and the manuscript modified accordingl

The exclusive J/ψ process at the LHC tamed to probe the low x gluon

The perturbative QCD expansion for J/ψ photoproduction appears to be unstable: the NLO correction is large (and of opposite sign) to the LO contribution. Moreover, the predictions are very sensitive to the choice of factorisation and renormalisation scales. Here we show that perturbative stability is greatly improved by imposing a ‘Q0 cut’ on the NLO coefficient functions; a cut which is required to avoid double counting. Q0 is the input scale used in the parton DGLAP evolution. This result opens the possibility of high precision exclusive J/ψ data in the forward direction at the LHC being able to determine the low x gluon distribution at low scales