EFFECTS OF SHADOWING IN DOUBLE POMERON EXCHANGE PROCESSES

The effects of shadowing in double Pomeron exchange processes are investigated within an eikonal approach with a Gaussian input. Damping factors due to screening are calculated for this process and compared with the factors obtained for total, elastic and single diffraction cross sections. Our main conclusion is that counting rate calculations, of various double Pomeron exchange processes (without screening corrections) such as heavy quark and Higgs production are reduced by a factor of 5 in the LHC energy range, when screening corrections are applied.Comment: 9 pages, latex, 5 figures obtainable from author

Evidence for xi- and t-dependent damping of the Pomeron Flux in the proton

We show that a triple-Regge parametrization of inclusive single diffraction agrees with the data in the following two domains: (a) xi > 0.03 at all t, (b) |t| > 1 GeV^2 at all xi. Since the triple-Regge parametrization fails when applied to the full xi-t range of the total single-diffractive cross section, we conclude that damping occurs only at low-xi and low-|t|. We give a (``toy'') parametrization of the damping factor, D(xi), valid at low-|t|, which describes the diffractive differential cross-section (dsig/dt) data at the ISR and roughly accounts for the observed s-dependence of diffractive total cross-section up to Tevatron energies. However, an effective damping factor calculated for the CDF fitted function for dsig/dxidt at sqrt(s} = 1800 GeV and |t| = 0.05 GeV^2, suggests that, at fixed-xi, damping increases as s increases. We conjecture that, in the regions where the triple-Regge formalism describes the data and there is no evidence of damping, factorization is valid and the Pomeron-flux-factor may be universal. With the assumption that the observed damping is due to multi-Pomeron exchange, our results imply that the recent UA8 demonstration that the effective Pomeron trajectory flattens for |t| > 1 GeV$^2 is evidence for the onset of the perturbative 2-gluon pomeron. Our damping results may also shed some light on the self-consistency of recent measurements of hard-diffractive jet production cross sections in the UA8, CDF and ZEUS experiments.Comment: 19 pages, 7 Encapsulated Postscript figures, LaTex, Phys. Lett. B (in press - 1998

Systematic Regge theory analysis of omega photoproduction

Systematic analysis of available data for $\omega$-meson photoproduction is given in frame of Regge theory. At photon energies above 20 GeV the $\gamma{+}p{\to}\omega{+}p$ reaction is entirely dominated by Pomeron exchange. However, it was found that Pomeron exchange model can not reproduce the $\gamma{+}p{\to}\rho{+}p$ and $\gamma{+}p{\to}\omega{+}p$ data at high energies simultaneously with the same set of parameters. The comparison between $\rho$ and $\omega$ data indicates a large room for meson exchange contribution to $\omega$-meson photoproduction at low energies. It was found that at low energies the dominant contribution comes from $\pi$ and $f_2$-meson exchanges. There is smooth transition between the meson exchange model at low energies and Regge theory at high energies.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures, revtex

Gamma(*)Gamma(*) reaction at high energies

The energy available for gamma(*)gamma(*) physics at LEP2 is opening a new window on the study of diffractive phenomena, both non-perturbative and perturbative. We discuss some of the uncertainties and problems connected with the experimental measurements and their interpretation.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, submitted to proceedings of the Durham Collider Workshop, 22-26 September 199

Behaviour of the forward peak in hard diffractive leptoproduction of vector mesons

The measured forward slope in elastic and inelastic leptoproduction of vector mesons differ by a substantial amount. In an attempt to describe this phenomenon we construct a two radii model for the target proton, and estimate the effective parameters of the hard Pomeron obtained from a pQCD dipole model with eikonal shadowing corrections (SC). We show that the SC reduce the intercept of the hard Pomeron and generate an effective shrinkage of the forward peak and a diffractive dip at $|t| \approx 1 GeV^2$, which appears to affect the value of the experimentally measured slope.Comment: 18 pages, 7 figures, one table, everything in tar.gz fil

The Role of Screening Corrections in High Energy Photoproduction

The role of screening corrections, calculated using the eikonal model, is discussed in the context of soft photoproduction. We present a comprehensive calculation considering the total,elastic and diffractive cross sections jointly. We examine the differences between our results and those obtained from the supercritical Pomeron-Reggeon model with no unitarity corrections.Comment: 12 pages (Replacement due to PostScript file problem in previous posting

The Dipole Picture and Saturation in Soft Processes

We attempt to describe soft hadron interactions in the framework of saturation models, one based upon the Balitsky-Kovchegov non-linear equation and another one due to Golec-Biernat and W\"{u}sthoff. For $pp$, $Kp$, and $\pi p$ scattering the relevant hadronic wave functions are formulated, and total, elastic cross-sections, and the forward elastic slope are calculated and compared to experimental data. The saturation mechanism leads to reasonable reproduction of the data for the quantities analyzed, except for the forward elastic slope, where the predicted increase with energy is too moderate.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures. One figure and several explanations are added. The version is to appear in PL

Observing the Odderon: Tensor Meson Photoproduction

We calculate high-energy photoproduction of the tensor meson $f_2(1270)$ by odderon and photon exchange in the reaction $\gamma + {\rm{p}} \to f_2(1270) + {\rm{X}}$, where X is either the nucleon or the sum of the N(1520) and N(1535) baryon resonances. Odderon exchange dominates except at very small transverse momentum, and we find a cross section of about 20 nb at a centre-of-mass energy of 20 GeV. This result is compared with what is currently known experimentally about $f_2$ photoproduction. We conclude that odderon exchange is not ruled out by present data. On the contrary, an odderon-induced cross section of the above magnitude may help to explain a puzzling result observed by the E687 experiment.Comment: 19 pages, 11 figure

Photon-Photon and Pomeron-Pomeron Processes in Peripheral Heavy Ion Collisions

We estimate the cross sections for the production of resonances, pion pairs and a central cluster of hadrons in peripheral heavy-ion collisions through two-photon and double-pomeron exchange, at energies that will be available at RHIC and LHC. The effect of the impact parameter in the diffractive reactions is introduced, and imposing the condition for realistic peripheral collisions we verify that in the case of very heavy ions the pomeron-pomeron contribution is indeed smaller than the electromagnetic one. However, they give a non-negligible background in the collision of light ions. This diffractive background will be more important at RHIC than at LHC.Comment: 22 pages, 1 Postscript figures, 4 tables, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Direct extraction of hadronic form factors from elastic-scattering data

Non-forward elastic hadron-scattering data are collected and analysed within the Regge approach. Through an analysis of the data in small bins in $t$, we have directly extracted the pomeron trajectory and the hadronic form factors (or reggeon couplings). We found higher values than usually used for the intercept and for the slope of the soft pomeron trajectory. The presence of zeros in $t$ for the effective hadronic form factors is emphasised.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, talk given at Diffraction 2004, Cala Gonone, Sardinia, Italy, 18-23 September 200