# POMERON: BEYOND THE STANDARD APPROACH 11footnote 1To appear in Proceedings of “XXIX International Symposium on Multiparticle Dynamics, 9-13 August 1999, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA”.

## 1 Introduction

Experiments at HERA and at hadron colliders have reported and characterized a class of events incorporating a hard (high transverse momentum) partonic scattering while carrying the characteristic signature of diffraction, namely a leading (anti)proton and/or a large rapidity gap (region of pseudorapidity devoid of particles). The prevailing theoretical idea is that the exchange across the gap is the Pomeron , which in QCD is a color-singlet exchange of gluons and/or quarks with vacuum quantum numbers.

A question of intense theoretical debate is whether the Pomeron has a unique particle-like partonic structure. This question can be addressed experimentally by comparing the parton distribution functions (pdf’ s) of the (anti)proton measured in a variety of hard single diffraction dissociation processes as a function of $`\xi `$, $`t`$, $`Q^2`$ and $`x`$ (or $`\beta x/\xi `$), where $`t`$ is the 4-momentum transfer and $`\xi `$ the fractional momentum loss of the (anti)proton. The gluon and quark pdf’ s can be sorted out by studying processes with different sensitivity to the gluon and quark components of the Pomeron.

The proton diffractive pdf’s  have been measured in diffractive deep inelastic scattering (DDIS) at HERA by both the H1  and ZEUS  Collaborations. The experiments measure directly the $`F_2`$ diffractive structure function, $`F_2^{D(3)}(\xi ,Q^2,\beta )=_{t=1}^{t_{min}}F_2^{D(4)}(t,\xi ,Q^2,\beta )𝑑t`$. The variable $`\xi `$ is related to the rapidity gap by $`\mathrm{\Delta }y=\mathrm{ln}\frac{1}{\xi }`$. The gluon diffractive $`pdf`$ was determined by H1 from a QCD analysis of the $`Q^2`$ evolution of $`F_2^{D(3)}`$. All HERA hard diffraction results are generally consistent with the parton densities obtained from DDIS. However, assuming factorization, calculations based on these $`pdf`$’s predict  rates $`10`$ times larger than the measured $`W`$ and dijet production rates at the Tevatron . The suppression of Tevatron relative to HERA diffractive rates represents a breakdown of factorization.

The magnitude of the factorization breakdown is in general agreement with predictions based on the renormalized Pomeron flux model , in which the Pomeron flux (see next section) is viewed  as a rapidity gap probability density and is normalized by scaling it to its integral over the available phase space in $`(\xi ,t)`$. In addition to its success in predicting soft and hard diffraction rates, the flux renormalization model describes differential soft diffraction cross sections  remarkably well. However, the $`\beta `$-dependence of the Pomeron/diffractive $`pdf`$’s is not specified by the model and had to be introduced “by hand”. In this paper, the diffractive $`pdf`$’s are derived from the non-diffractive using a parton model approach to hard diffraction based on the the concept of a normalized rapidity gap probability.

## 2 Clues from soft physics

The Pomeron was introduced in Regge theory to account for the high energy behavior of the elastic, diffractive and total hadronic cross sections. In terms of the Pomeron trajectory, $`\alpha (t)=1+ϵ+\alpha ^{}t`$, the $`pp`$ cross sections can be written as

$$\sigma _T\left(s\right)=\beta _{IPpp}^2\left(0\right)\left(\frac{s}{s_0}\right)^{\alpha \left(0\right)1}\left(\frac{s}{s_0}\right)^ϵ$$
(1)   
$$\frac{d\sigma _{el}}{dt}=\frac{\beta _{IPpp}^4\left(t\right)}{16\pi }\left(\frac{s}{s_0}\right)^{2\left[\alpha \left(t\right)1\right]}\mathrm{exp}\left[\left(b_{}+2\alpha ^{}\mathrm{ln}s\right)t\right]$$
(2)   
$$\frac{d^2\sigma _{sdd}}{d\xi dt}=\underset{\mathrm{Pomeron}\mathrm{flux}\frac{1}{\xi ^{1+2ϵ}}}{\underset{}{\frac{\beta _{IPpp}^2\left(t\right)}{16\pi }\frac{1}{\xi ^{2\alpha \left(t\right)1}}}}\underset{\sigma _T^{IPp}\left(\xi s\right)^ϵ}{\underset{}{\beta _{IPpp}\left(0\right)g\left(t\right)\left(\frac{\xi s}{s_0}\right)^{\alpha \left(0\right)1}}}$$
(3)   
The Regge approach has been successful in predicting the three salient features of high energy behavior, namely (i) the rise of the total cross secions with energy , (ii) the shrinking of the forward elastic scattering peak , and (iii) the shape of the $`M^2`$ dependence of SDD . However, these features are also present in a parton model approach , as outlined below.

### 2.1 Rise of total cross sections

The $`pp`$ total cross section is basically proportional to the number of partons in the proton, integrated down to $`x=s_{}/s`$, where $`s_{}`$ is the energy scale for soft physics. The latter is of $`𝒪(M_T^2)`$, where $`M_T1`$ GeV is the average transverse mass of the particles in the final state. Expressing the parton density as a power law in $`1/x`$, which is an appropriate parameterization for the small $`x`$ region responsible for the cross section rise at high energies, we obtain

$$\sigma _T_{\left(s_{}/s\right)}^1\frac{dx}{x^{1+n}}\left(\frac{s}{s_{}}\right)^n$$
(4)   
The parameter $`n`$ is identified with the $`ϵ=\alpha (0)1`$ of the Pomeron trajectory.

### 2.2 Shrinking of forward elastic peak

In Regge theory, the slope of the forward elastic peak increases as $`\mathrm{ln}s`$, while in the parton picture one would naively expect the slope to follow the increase of the total cross section:

$$\frac{d\sigma ^{el}}{dt}\underset{\mathrm{Regge}}{\underset{}{\mathrm{exp}\left[\left(b_{}+2\alpha ^{}\mathrm{ln}s\right)t\right]}}\underset{\mathrm{Parton}\mathrm{model}}{\underset{}{\mathrm{exp}\left[\left(b_{}+cs^n\right)t\right]}}$$
(5)   
Using $`n=ϵ=0.104`$ , we note that from $`\sqrt{s}=20`$ to 1800 GeV the terms $`\mathrm{ln}s`$ and $`s^n`$ increase by factors of 2.50 and 2.55, respectively. Thus, the Regge and parton model expressions for the slope are experimentally indistinguishable.

### 2.3 $`M^2`$ dependence of diffraction dissociation

The diffractive mass is related to $`\xi `$ by $`M^2\xi s`$. In the Regge picture, the $`t=0`$ single diffractive cross section <sup>2</sup><sup>2</sup>2In the rest of this paper we use $`t=0`$ cross sections for simplicity, but the results we obtain generally apply also to the cross sections integrated over $`t`$. is given by (see Eq. 3)

$$\mathrm{Regge}:\frac{d\sigma _{sdd}}{dM^2}\frac{s^{2ϵ}}{\left(M^2\right)^{1+ϵ}}$$
(6)   
However, experimentally the cross section is found to be independent of $`s`$ :

$$\mathrm{Experiment}:\frac{d\sigma _{sdd}}{dM^2}\frac{1}{\left(M^2\right)^{1+ϵ}}$$
(7)   
In terms of $`\xi =\frac{M^2}{s}`$, we have $`\frac{d\sigma _{sdd}^{\mathrm{exp}}}{d\xi }\frac{1}{s^ϵ}\frac{1}{\xi ^{1+ϵ}}`$, which can be written as

$$\frac{d\sigma _{sdd}}{d\xi }\underset{}{\frac{1}{s^{2ϵ}}\frac{1}{\xi ^{1+2ϵ}}}\times \left(\xi s\right)^ϵ$$
(8)   
Recalling that $`\xi `$ is related to the rapidity gap and $`\xi s=M^2`$ is the s-value of the diffractive sub-system, and noting that $`_{(s_{}/s)}^1\frac{1}{s^{2ϵ}}\frac{d\xi }{\xi ^{1+2ϵ}}=\mathrm{constant}`$, Eq. 8 may be viewed as representing the product of the total cross section at the sub-system energy multiplied by a normalized rapidity gap probability. This experimentally established scaling behavior is used in the next section as a clue in deriving the diffractive $`F_2`$ structure function from the non-diffractive in the parton model approach to diffraction.

## 3 Diffractive deep inelastic scattering

The inclusive and diffractive DIS cross sections are proportional to the corresponding $`F_2`$ structure functions of the proton,

$$\frac{d^2\sigma }{dxdQ^2}\frac{F_2^h(x,Q^2)}{x};\frac{d^3\sigma }{d\xi dxdQ^2}\frac{F_2^{D\left(3\right)}(\xi ,x,Q^2)}{x}$$
(9)   
where the superscripts $`h`$ and $`D(3)`$ indicate a hard inclusive structure (at the scale $`Q^2`$) and a 3-variable diffractive structure (integrated over $`t`$). The latter depends not only on the hard scale $`Q^2`$, but also on the soft scale $`M_T^2`$, which is the relevant one for the formation of the gap.

The only marker of the rapidity gap is the variable $`\xi `$. We therefore postulate that the rapidity gap probability is proportional to the soft parton density at $`\xi `$ and write the DDIS cross section as

$$\frac{d^3\sigma }{d\xi dxdQ^2}\frac{F_2^h(x,Q^2)}{x}\times \frac{F_2^s\left(\xi \right)}{\xi }\xi \mathrm{norm}$$
(10)   
where the symbolic notation “$`\xi \mathrm{norm}`$” is used to indicate that the $`\xi `$ probability is normalized. Since $`x=\beta \xi `$, the normalization over all available $`\xi `$ values involves not only $`F_2^s`$ but also $`F_2^h`$, breaking down factorization. It is therefore prudent to write the DDIS cross section in terms of $`\beta `$ instead of $`x`$, so that the dependence of $`F_2^h`$ on $`\xi `$ is shown explicitely:

$$\frac{d^3\sigma }{d\xi d\beta dQ^2}\frac{F_2^h(\beta \xi ,Q^2)}{\beta }\times \frac{F_2^s\left(\xi \right)}{\xi }\xi \mathrm{norm}$$
(11)   
The term to the right of the $``$ sign represents the $`F_2^{D(3)}(\xi ,\beta ,Q^2)`$ structure function. Guided by the scaling behaviour of Eq. 8, we now factorize $`F_2^{D(3)}(\xi ,\beta ,Q^2)`$ into $`F_2^h(\beta ,Q^2)`$, the sub-energy cross section, times a normalized gap probability:

$$F_2^{D\left(3\right)}(\xi ,\beta ,Q^2)=P_{gap}(\xi ,\beta ,Q^2)\times F_2^h(\beta ,Q^2)$$
(12)   
The gap probability is given by

$$P_{gap}(\xi ,\beta ,Q^2)=\frac{F_2^h(\beta \xi ,Q^2)}{\beta }\times \frac{F_2^s\left(\xi \right)}{\xi }\times N(s,\beta ,Q^2)$$
(13)   
where $`N(s,\beta ,Q^2)`$ is the normalization factor,

$$N(s,\beta ,Q^2)=f_q/_{\xi _{min}=Q^2/\beta s}^1\frac{F_2^h(\beta \xi ,Q^2)}{\beta }\times \frac{F_2^s\left(\xi \right)}{\xi }𝑑\xi $$
(14)   
in which $`f_q`$ denotes the quark fraction of the hard structure (since only quarks participate in DIS).

### 3.1 Comparison with data

At small $`x`$ and small $`\xi `$, the structure functions $`F_2^h`$ and $`F_2^s`$ are represented well by $`F_2^h(x,Q^2)=A^h/x^{ϵ^h(Q^2)}`$ and $`F_2^s(\xi )=A^s/\xi ^{ϵ^s}`$. An analytic evaluation of Eqs. 14 and 12 yields

$$N(s,\beta ,Q^2)=f_q/\left[\frac{A^h}{\beta ^{1+ϵ^h}}\frac{A^s}{ϵ^h+ϵ^s}\left(\frac{\beta s}{Q^2}\right)^{ϵ^h+ϵ^s}\right]$$
(15)   
$$F_2^{D\left(3\right)}(\xi ,\beta ,Q^2)=\frac{1}{\xi ^{1+ϵ^h+ϵ^s}}\times f_q\left(ϵ^h+ϵ^s\right)\left(\frac{Q^2}{\beta s}\right)^{ϵ^h+ϵ^s}\times \frac{A^h}{\beta ^{ϵ^h}}$$
(16)   
Figure 1 shows a comparison of the $`\beta `$ distribution of H1 data  at $`\xi 0.01`$ and $`Q^2=45`$ GeV<sup>2</sup> with the prediction of Eq. 16. The following parameters were used in the calculation: $`\sqrt{s}=280`$ GeV, $`ϵ^s=0.1`$ , $`Q^2=45`$ GeV<sup>2</sup>, $`ϵ^h(Q^2=45)=0.3`$, $`f_q=0.4`$, $`\xi =0.01`$ and $`A^h=0.2`$, evaluated from $`F_2(Q^2=50,x=0.00133)=1.46\frac{A^h}{x^{0.3}}`$. The agreement between theory and experiment may be considered excellent, particularly since no free parameters were used in the calculation.

Figure 1

## References