New Results in Light-Front Phenomenology

The light-front quantization of gauge theories such as QCD in light-cone gauge provides a frame-independent wavefunction representation of relativistic bound states, simple forms for current matrix elements, explicit unitarity, and a trivial vacuum. The freedom to choose the light-like quantization four-vector provides an explicitly covariant formulation of light-front quantization and can be used to determine the analytic structure of light-front wave functions and to define a kinematical definition of angular momentum. The AdS/CFT correspondence of large $N_C$ supergravity theory in higher-dimensional anti-de Sitter space with supersymmetric QCD in 4-dimensional space-time has interesting implications for hadron phenomenology in the conformal limit, including an all-orders demonstration of counting rules for exclusive processes. String/gauge duality also predicts the QCD power-law behavior of light-front Fock-state hadronic wavefunctions with arbitrary orbital angular momentum at high momentum transfer. The form of these near-conformal wavefunctions can be used as an initial ansatz for a variational treatment of the light-front QCD Hamiltonian. I also briefly review recent analyses which shows that some leading-twist phenomena such as the diffractive component of deep inelastic scattering, single-spin asymmetries, nuclear shadowing and antishadowing cannot be computed from the LFWFs of hadrons in isolation.Comment: Presented at LightCone 2004, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 16-20 August 200

Novel QCD Phenomena

I discuss a number of novel topics in QCD, including the use of the AdS/CFT correspondence between Anti-de Sitter space and conformal gauge theories to obtain an analytically tractable approximation to QCD in the regime where the QCD coupling is large and constant. In particular, there is an exact correspondence between the fifth-dimension coordinate z of AdS space and a specific impact variable zeta which measures the separation of the quark constituents within the hadron in ordinary space-time. This connection allows one to compute the analytic form of the frame-independent light-front wavefunctions of mesons and baryons, the fundamental entities which encode hadron properties and allow the computation of exclusive scattering amplitudes. I also discuss a number of novel phenomenological features of QCD. Initial- and final-state interactions from gluon-exchange, normally neglected in the parton model, have a profound effect in QCD hard-scattering reactions, leading to leading-twist single-spin asymmetries, diffractive deep inelastic scattering, diffractive hard hadronic reactions, the breakdown of the Lam Tung relation in Drell-Yan reactions, and nuclear shadowing and non-universal antishadowing--leading-twist physics not incorporated in the light-front wavefunctions of the target computed in isolation. I also discuss tests of hidden color in nuclear wavefunctions, the use of diffraction to materialize the Fock states of a hadronic projectile and test QCD color transparency, and anomalous heavy quark effects. The presence of direct higher-twist processes where a proton is produced in the hard subprocess can explain the large proton-to-pion ratio seen in high-centrality heavy-ion collisions.Comment: Invited talk presented at the Workshop on High PT Physics at the LHC (LHC07), Jyvaskyla, Finland, 23-27 March 2007; typos corrected; added reference;resolution of figures improve

Perspectives on Exclusive Processes in QCD

Hard hadronic exclusive processes are now at the forefront of QCD studies, particularly because of their role in the interpretation of exclusive hadronic B decays. Perturbative QCD and its factorization properties at high momentum transfer provide an essential guide to the phenomenology of exclusive amplitudes at large momentum transfer--the leading power fall-off of form factors and fixed-angle cross sections, the dominant helicity structures, and their color transparency properties. The hard scattering subprocess amplitude T_H controlling the leading-twist amplitude is evaluated in the perturbative domain where the propagator virtualities are above the separation scale. A critical question is the momentum transfer required such that leading-twist perturbative QCD contributions dominate. I review some of the contentious theoretical issues and empirical challenges to Perturbative QCD based analyses, such as the magnitude of the leading-twist contributions, the role of soft and higher twist QCD mechanisms, the effects of non-zero orbital angular momentum, the possibility of single-spin asymmetries in deeply virtual Compton scattering, the role of hidden color in nuclear wavefunctions, the behavior of the ratio of Pauli and Dirac nucleon form factors, the apparent breakdown of color transparency in quasi-elastic proton-proton scattering, and the measurement of hadron and photon wavefunctions in diffractive dijet production.Comment: Invited Talk, presented at the Workshop on Exclusive Processes at High Momentum Transfer, Jefferson Lab, Newport News, Virginia, May 15-18, 2002. Added reference

Novel QCD Effects from Initial and Final State Interactions

Initial-state and final-state interactions, which are conventionally neglected in the parton model, have a profound effect in QCD hard-scattering reactions. These effects, which arise from gluon exchange between the active and spectator quarks, cause leading-twist single-spin asymmetries, diffractive deep inelastic scattering, diffractive hard hadronic reactions, and the breakdown of the Lam-Tung relation in Drell-Yan reactions. Diffractive deep inelastic scattering also leads to nuclear shadowing and non-universal antishadowing of nuclear structure functions through multiple scattering reactions in the nuclear target. Factorization-breaking effects are particularly important for hard hadron interactions since both initial-state and final-state interactions appear. Related factorization breaking effects can also appear in exclusive electroproduction reactions and in deeply virtual Compton scattering. None of the effects of initial-state and final-state interactions are incorporated in the light-front wavefunctions of the target hadron computed in isolation.Comment: Invited talk, presented at the Workshop on Exclusive Reactions at High Momentum Transfer 21-24 May 2007, Newport News, Virgini

Novel QCD Phenomenology at the LHeC

The proposed electron-proton/ion collider at CERN, the LHeC, can test fundamental and novel aspects of QCD and electroweak interactions as well as explore physics beyond the standard model over an exceptionally large kinematic range.Comment: LHeC Contributio