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.

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

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

Skewed distributions fixed by diagonal partons at small x,\xi and γ∗p→Vp\gamma^* p \to Vp at HERA

We show that the skewed parton distributions are completely determined at small x and \xi by the conventional diagonal partons. We study the application to diffractive vector meson production at HERA.Comment: 3 pages, LATeX, no figures, uses npb.sty, presented at the DIS99 Workshop, Zeuthen, Germany, April 19-23, 1999, to appear in the proceeding

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

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

Diffractive parton distributions from H1 data

We analyse the latest H1 large rapidity gap data to obtain diffractive parton distributions, using a procedure based on perturbative QCD, and compare them with distributions obtained from the simplified Regge factorisation type of analysis. The diffractive parton densities and structure functions are made publically available.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures. Fortran code for diffractive parton densities and structure functions can be found at http://durpdg.dur.ac.uk/hepdata/mrw.html . Version to appear in Phys. Lett. B; final paragraph added, with curves from H1 incl.+dijet fit added to Fig.

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

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)