Saturation effects in pp scattering in the impact-parameter representation

The impact of unitarity is considered in different approaches to saturation in impact-parameter space. The energy and momentum-transfer dependence of the total and differential cross sections and of the ratio of the real to imaginary parts of the scattering amplitude are obtained in a model that includes soft and hard pomeron contributions, coupled to hadrons via the electromagnetic form factor. It is shown that the hard pomeron may significantly contribute to soft physics at the LHC. A similar conclusion can also be reached in the framework of non-linear approaches to unitarisation of the BFKL pomeron.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figure, uses espcrc2.sty. Contribution to ``Diffraction 2004'', International Workshop on Diffraction in High-Energy Physics, Cala Gonone, Sardinia, September 18-23, 200

Elastic and quasi-elastic pppp and γ⋆p\gamma^\star p scattering in the Dipole Model

We have in earlier papers presented an extension of Mueller's dipole cascade model, which includes sub-leading effects from energy conservation and running coupling as well as colour suppressed saturation effects from pomeron loops via a ``dipole swing''. The model was applied to describe the total and diffractive cross sections in $pp$ and $\gamma^*p$ collisions, and also the elastic cross section in $pp$ scattering. In this paper we extend the model to describe the corresponding quasi-elastic cross sections in $\gamma^*p$, namely the exclusive production of vector mesons and deeply virtual compton scattering. Also for these reactions we find a good agrement with measured cross sections. In addition we obtain a reasonable description of the $t$-dependence of the elastic $pp$ and quasi-elastic $\gamma^\star p$ cross sections

Double Diffraction Dissociation at High t

Diffractive scattering in the presence of a large momentum transfer is an ideal place to study the short distance rapidity gap producing mechanism. Previous studies (experimental and theoretical) in this area have focussed on gaps between jets and on high-$t$ vector meson production. We propose the measurement of double dissociation at high-$t$. We examine the numerous advantages to studying this more inclusive process and conclude that it is an ideal place to study short distance diffraction.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figure

Vector Meson Photoproduction from the BFKL Equation II: Phenomenology

Diffractive vector meson photoproduction accompanied by proton dissociation is studied for large momentum transfer. The process is described by the non-forward BFKL equation which we use to compare to data collected at the HERA collider.Comment: 39 pages, 29 figure

Properties of the BFKL equation and structure function predictions for HERA

The general properties of the Lipatov or BFKL equation are reviewed. Modifications to the infrared region are proposed. Numerical predictions for the deep-inelastic electron-proton structure functions at small $x$ are presented and confronted with recent HERA measurements.Comment: 21 pages, 11 figures, Latex file, Durham preprint DTP 92/2

Vortex lattice of a Bose-Einstein Condensate in a rotating anisotropic trap

We study the vortex lattices in a Bose-Einstein Condensate in a rotating anisotropic harmonic trap. We first investigate the single particle wavefunctions obtained by the exact solution of the problem and give simple expressions for these wavefunctions in the small anisotropy limit. Depending on the strength of the interactions, a few or a large number of vortices can be formed. In the limit of many vortices, we calculate the density profile of the cloud and show that the vortex lattice stays triangular. We also find that the vortex lattice planes align themselves with the weak axis of the external potential. For a small number of vortices, we numerically solve the Gross-Pitaevskii equation and find vortex configurations that are very different from the vortex configurations in an axisymmetric rotating trap.Comment: 15 pages,4 figure

Ricci flows and expansion in axion-dilaton cosmology

We study renormalization-group flows by deforming a class of conformal sigma-models. We consider overall scale factor perturbation of Einstein spaces as well as more general anisotropic deformations of three-spheres. At leading order in alpha, renormalization-group equations turn out to be Ricci flows. In the three-sphere background, the latter is the Halphen system, which is exactly solvable in terms of modular forms. We also analyze time-dependent deformations of these systems supplemented with an extra time coordinate and time-dependent dilaton. In some regimes time evolution is identified with renormalization-group flow and time coordinate can appear as Liouville field. The resulting space-time interpretation is that of a homogeneous isotropic Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universe in axion-dilaton cosmology. We find as general behaviour the superposition of a big-bang (polynomial) expansion with a finite number of oscillations at early times. Any initial anisotropy disappears during the evolution.Comment: 22 page

Diffractive Production of Vector Mesons at Large t

The cross section for elastic vector meson production in photon-proton interactions at large $t$ is considered using the exact analytic solution of the BFKL equation in the azimuthally symmetric $n=0$ limit. We use a non-relativistic model for the vector meson production and find a small shrinkage in the $t$-distribution with increasing energy.Comment: 13 pages plus 3 figures (uuencoded

Non-linear QCD dynamics in two-photon interactions at high energies

Perturbative QCD predicts that the growth of the gluon density at high energies should saturate, forming a Color Glass Condensate (CGC), which is described in mean field approximation by the Balitsky-Kovchegov (BK) equation. In this paper we study the $\gamma \gamma$ interactions at high energies and estimate the main observables which will be probed at future linear colliders using the color dipole picture. We discuss in detail the dipole - dipole cross section and propose a new relation between this quantity and the dipole scattering amplitude. The total $\gamma \gamma$, $\gamma^{*} \gamma^{*}$ cross-sections and the real photon structure function $F_2^{\gamma}(x,Q^2)$ are calculated using the recent solution of the BK equation with running coupling constant and the predictions are compared with those obtained using phenomenological models for the dipole-dipole cross section and scattering amplitude. We demonstrate that these models are able to describe the LEP data at high energies, but predict a very different behavior for the observables at higher energies. Therefore we conclude that the study of $\gamma \gamma$ interactions can be useful to constrain the QCD dynamics.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures. Version to be published in European Physical Journal

Enhanced Fusion-Evaporation Cross Sections in Neutron-Rich 132^{132}Sn on 64^{64}Ni

Evaporation residue cross sections have been measured with neutron-rich radioactive $^{132}$Sn beams on $^{64}$Ni in the vicinity of the Coulomb barrier. The average beam intensity was $2\times 10^{4}$ particles per second and the smallest cross section measured was less than 5 mb. Large subbarrier fusion enhancement was observed. Coupled-channels calculations taking into account inelastic excitation and neutron transfer underpredict the measured cross sections below the barrier.Comment: 4 pages including 1 table and 3 figure