Theory of Elastic Vector Meson Production

The elastic production of vector mesons at HERA is discussed from the theoretical point of view. We briefly review different models, their successes and shortcomings. Main emphasis is put on recent issues in perturbative QCD calculations. Models including the vector meson wave function are compared with an approach based on parton-hadron duality. We discuss several refinements of these models in some detail, including the important role of off-diagonal parton distributions.Comment: 2+12 pages, LaTeX, five figures. Talk given at the Ringberg Workshop: New Trends in HERA Physics 199

High-Energy Scattering and Diffraction: Theory Summary

New developments in the theory and phenomenology of high-energy scattering and diffraction that were presented and discussed at DIS2000 are reviewed.Comment: 9 pages, LaTeX, including one PostScript figure. Talk given at the 8th International Workshop on Deep-Inelastic Scattering (DIS2000), 25th-30th April 2000, Liverpool, England, to appear in the proceeding

Axial Contributions at the Top Threshold

We calculate the contributions of the axial current to top quark pair production in e+ e- annihilation at threshold. The QCD dynamics is taken into account by solving the Lippmann-Schwinger equation for the P wave production using the QCD potential up to two loops. We demonstrate that the dependence of the total and differential cross section on the polarization of the e+ and e- beams allows for an independent extraction of the axial current induced cross section.Comment: LaTeX, 12 pages, including 5 Postscript figures using eps

Comment on the Average Momentum of Top Quarks in the Threshold Region

The behavior of the momentum distribution of top quarks in the threshold region is investigated. The qualitative behavior, in particular the dependence of the average momentum on the strong coupling constant can be understood from analytical calculations for the Coulomb potential. Ambiguities in the relation between the excitation curve and the top mass are addressed.Comment: Univ. of Karlsruhe preprint TTP93-31, LaTeX, 6 pages including two figures (uses epsf) appended as uuencoded postscript fil

Polarization in Top Quark Production and Decay near Threshold

Theoretical results are presented for top quarks produced in annihilation of polarized electrons on positrons. Polarization studies for $t\bar t$ pairs near threshold are free from hadronization ambiguities. This is due to the short lifetime of the top quark. Semileptonic decays are discussed as well as their applications in studying polarization dependent processes involving top quarks. The Green function formalism is applied to $t\bar t$ production at future $e^+e^-$ colliders with polarized beams. Lippmann--Schwinger equation is solved numerically for the QCD chromostatic potential given by the two-loop formula at large momentum transfers and Richardson ansatz at intermediate and small ones. The polarization dependent momentum distributions of top quarks and their decay products are calculated.Comment: 6 pages, LaTex (uses epsf.sty, 2 figures appended as uuencoded ps files). The complete paper, including figures, is also available via anonymous ftp at ttpux2.physik.uni-karlsruhe.de (129.13.102.139) as /ttp94-24/ttp94-24.ps, or via www at http://ttpux2.physik.uni-karlsruhe.de/preprints.html

A Renormalization Group Improved Calculation of Top Quark Production near Threshold

The top quark cross section close to threshold in $e^+e^-$ annihilation is computed including the summation of logarithms of the velocity at next-to-next-to-leading-logarithmic order in QCD. The remaining theoretical uncertainty in the normalization of the total cross section is at the few percent level, an order of magnitude smaller than in previous next-to-next-to-leading order calculations. This uncertainty is smaller than the effects of a light standard model Higgs boson.Comment: changed figures, added reference

Exclusive J/ψJ/\psi and Υ\Upsilon photoproduction and the low xx gluon

We study exclusive vector meson photoproduction, $\gamma p \to V + p$ with $V=J/\psi$ or $\Upsilon$, at NLO in collinear factorisation, in order to examine what may be learnt about the gluon distribution at very low $x$. We examine the factorisation scale dependence of the predictions. We argue that, using knowledge of the NLO corrections, terms enhanced by a large $\ln(1/\xi)$ can be reabsorbed in the LO part by a choice of the factorisation scale. (In these exclusive processes $\xi$ takes the role of Bjorken-$x$.) Then, the scale dependence coming from the remaining NLO contributions has no $\ln(1/\xi)$ enhancements. As a result, we find that predictions for the amplitude of $\Upsilon$ production are stable to within about $\pm 15\%$. This will allow data for the exclusive process $p p \to p\Upsilon p$ at the LHC, particularly from LHCb, to be included in global parton analyses to constrain the gluon PDF down to $x\sim 10^{-5}$. Moreover, the study of exclusive $J/\psi$ photoproduction indicates that the gluon density found in the recent global PDF analyses is too small at low $x$ and low scales.Comment: 21 pages, 6 figures. Text significantly improved, references added, version to be published in J.Phys.