Fluctuation Studies at the Subnuclear Level of Matter: Evidence for Stability, Stationarity and Scaling

It is pointed out that the concepts and methods introduced by Bachelier and by Mandelbrot to Finance and Economics can be used to examine the fluctuations observed in high-energy hadron production processes. Theoretical arguments and experimental evidences are presented which show that the relative variations of hadron-numbers between successive rapidity intervals are non-Gaussian stable random variables, which exhibit stationarity and scaling. The implications of the obtained results are discussed.Comment: 34 Pages, 15 Postscript figures added references; corrected typos; changed conten

Criticality in quark-gluon systems far beyond thermal and chemical equilibrium

Experimental evidence and theoretical arguments for the existence of self-organized criticality in systems of gluons and quarks are presented. It is observed that the existing data for high-transverse-momentum jet-production exhibit striking regularities; and it is shown that, together with first-principle considerations, such regularities can be used, not only to probe the possible compositness of quarks, but also to obtain {\em direct evidence} for, or against, the existence of critical temperature and/or critical chemical potential in quark-gluon systems when hadrons are squeezed together.Comment: 13 pages, including 1 figure and 1 tabl

Formation of color-singlet gluon-clusters and inelastic diffractive scattering

This is the extensive follow-up report of a recent Letter in which the existence of self-organized criticality (SOC) in systems of interacting soft gluons is proposed, and its consequences for inelastic diffractive scattering processes are discussed. It is pointed out, that color-singlet gluon-clusters can be formed in hadrons as a consequence of SOC in systems of interacting soft gluons, and that the properties of such spatiotemporal complexities can be probed experimentally by examing inelastic diffractive scattering. Theoretical arguments and experimental evidences supporting the proposed picture are presented --- together with the result of a systematic analysis of the existing data for inelastic diffractive scattering processes performed at different incident energies, and/or by using different beam-particles. It is shown in particular that the size- and the lifetime-distributions of such gluon-clusters can be directly extracted from the data, and the obtained results exhibit universal power-law behaviors --- in accordance with the expected SOC-fingerprints. As further consequences of SOC in systems of interacting soft gluons, the $t$-dependence and the $(M_x^2/s)$-dependence of the double differential cross-sections for inelastic diffractive scattering off proton-target are discussed. Here $t$ stands for the four-momentum-transfer squared, $M_x$ for the missing mass, and $\sqrt{s}$ for the total c.m.s. energy. It is shown, that the space-time properties of the color-singlet gluon-clusters due to SOC, discussed above, lead to simple analytical formulae for $d^2\sigma/dt d(M_x^2/s)$ and for $d\sigma/dt$, and that the obtained results are in good agreement with the existing data. Further experiments are suggested.Comment: 67 pages, including 11 figure