Saturation in diffractive deep inelastic eA scattering

In this paper we investigate the saturation physics in diffractive deep inelastic electron-ion scattering. We estimate the energy and nuclear dependence of the ratio $\sigma^{diff}/\sigma^{tot}$ and predict the x_{\pom} and $\beta$ behavior of the nuclear diffractive structure function $F_{2,A}^{D(3)}(Q^2, \beta, x_{IP})$. Moreover, we analyze the ratio $R^{diff}_{A1,A2}(Q^2, \beta, x_{IP}) = F_{2,A1} ^{D(3)}/F_{2,A2} ^{D(3)}$, which probes the nuclear dependence of the structure of the Pomeron. We show that saturation physics predicts that approximately 37 % of the events observed at eRHIC should be diffractive.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures. Version to be published in the European Physical Journal

Exclusive processes in electron - ion collisions

The exclusive processes in electron-ion ($eA$) interactions are an important tool to investigate the QCD dynamics at high energies as they are in general driven by the gluon content of the target, which is strongly subject to parton saturation effects. In this paper we compute the cross sections for the exclusive vector meson production as well as the deeply virtual Compton scattering (DVCS) relying on the color dipole approach and considering the numerical solution of the Balitsky-Kovchegov equation including running coupling corrections (rcBK). The production cross sections obtained with the rcBK solution and bCGC parametrization are very similar, the former being slightly larger.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Saturation physics at HERA and RHIC: An unified description

One of the frontiers of QCD which are intensely investigated in high energy experiments is the high energy (small $x$) regime, where we expect to observe the non-linear behavior of the theory. In this regime, the growth of the parton distribution should saturate, forming a Color Glass Condensate (CGC). In fact, signals of parton saturation have already been observed both in $ep$ deep inelastic scattering at HERA and in deuteron-gold collisions at RHIC. Currently, the description of the experimental data of these experiments is possible considering different phenomenological saturation models for the two processes within the CGC formalism. In this letter we analyze the universality of these dipole cross section parameterizations and verify that they are not able to describe the HERA and RHIC data simultaneously. We analyze possible improvements in the parameterizations and propose a new parametrization for the forward dipole amplitude which allows us to describe quite well the small-$x$ $ep$ HERA data on $F_2$ structure function as well as the $dAu$ RHIC data on charged hadron spectra. It is an important signature of the universality of the saturation physics.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures. Version to be published in Physics Letters

Probing the Color Glass Condensate in an electron-ion collider

Perturbative Quantum Chromodynamics (pQCD) predicts that the small-$x$ gluons in a hadron wavefunction should form a Color Glass Condensate (CGC), characterized by a saturation scale $Q_s (x, A)$ which is energy and atomic number dependent. In this paper we study the predictions of CGC physics for electron - ion collisions at high energies. We consider that the nucleus at high energies acts as an amplifier of the physics of high parton densities and estimate the nuclear structure function $F_2^A(x,Q^2)$, as well as the longitudinal and charm contributions, using a generalization for nuclear targets of the Iancu-Itakura-Munier model which describes the $ep$ HERA data quite well. Moreover, we investigate the behavior of the logarithmic slopes of the total and longitudinal structure functions in the kinematical region of the future electron - ion collider eRHIC.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figures. Version to be published in the European Physical Journal

Nuclear shadowing in Glauber-Gribov theory with Q2-evolution

We consider deep inelastic scattering off nuclei in the Regge limit within the Glauber-Gribov model. Using unitarized parton distribution functions for the proton, we find sizeable shadowing effects on the nuclear total and longitudinal structure functions, $F_2^A$ and $F_L^A$, in the low-x limit. Extending a fan-diagram analysis for the large-mass region of coherent diffraction off nuclei to high Q2, we also find significant shadowing effects in this kinematical regime. Finally, we discuss shortcomings of our approach and possible extensions of the model to other kinematical regimes.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figure