# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

Ideas on diffraction have been developed over a long time. Quite old (‘old-old’) is the Regge approach  with a pomeron mediating elastic and diffractive interactions . Being from pre-QCD times, Regge phenomenology only considers soft interactions described in terms of hadrons. In a modern QCD-based language one would like to understand diffraction on the parton level. This was the starting point of the by now ‘old new’ idea  that one should probe the structure of the pomeron through a hard scattering in diffractive events. By introducing a hard scale one should resolve partons in the pomeron and also make calculations possible through perturbative QCD (pQCD). This opened the new branch of diffractive hard scattering with models and the discovery by UA8  as discussed in section 3.

The models are based on a factorization between the new concepts of a ‘pomeron flux’ (in the proton) and a ‘pomeron structure function’ in terms of parton density functions. These ideas may be interpreted as the pomeron being analogous to a hadron (maybe a glueball?) as discussed in section 2.

The discovery of rapidity gap events in deep inelastic scattering (DIS) at HERA was a great surprise to most people, although it had been predicted as a natural consequence of the diffractive hard scattering idea . The pointlike probe in DIS makes it an ideal way to measure the parton structure of diffraction. This is discussed in section 4 together with diffractive production of jets and $`W`$’s at the Tevatron. Although pomeron-based models may work phenomenologically, there are conceptual and theoretical problems as discussed in section 5.

These problems are related to the general unsolved problem of non-perturbative QCD (non-pQCD). Diffraction is one important aspect of this, others are hadronization in high energy collisions and the confinement of quarks and gluons. In recent years there has been an increased interest for these problems and efforts are made based on new ideas and methods as discussed in section 6. The hard scale in diffractive hard scattering only solves part of the problem by making the upper part of the diagrams in Fig. 1 calculable in perturbation theory. However, the soft, lower part of the interaction occurs over a large space-time as illustrated in Fig. 1c and must be treated with some novel non-pQCD methods.

One such ‘new-new’ idea is the soft colour interaction (SCI) model , which is an explicit attempt to describe non-pQCD interactions in a Monte Carlo event generation model. Although it is quite simple, it is able to describe data on different diffractive and non-diffractive interactions as discussed in section 6. However, a better theoretical basis for this kind of models is certainly needed. In addition, the rapidity gaps between high-$`p_{}`$ jets observed at the Tevatron are still a challenge to understand (section 7). In conclusion (section 8), although substantial progress has been made recently, diffractive scattering is still a basically unsolved problem which provides challenges for the future.

## 2 Rapidity gaps and the pomeron concept

The dynamics of hadron-hadron interactions are largely not understood. Only the very small fraction of the cross section related to hard (large momentum transfer) interactions can be understood from first principles using pertubation theory, e.g. jet production in QCD or $`\gamma ^{},W,Z`$ production in electroweak theory. The large cross section ($`𝒪(mb)`$) processes, on the other hand, are given by non-pQCD for which proper theory is lacking and only phenomenological models are available. These processes are classified in terms of their final states as illustrated in Fig. 2.

The distribution of final state hadrons is then usually expressed in terms of the rapidity variables

$$\mathrm{rapidity}y=\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{ln}\frac{E+p_z}{Ep_z}\mathrm{ln}\mathrm{tan}\frac{\theta }{2}=\eta \mathrm{pseudorapidity}$$
(1)   
where the approximation becomes exact for massless particles and the polar angle $`\theta `$ is with respect to the $`z`$-axis along the beam. In a totally inelastic interaction (Fig. 2e) the hadrons are distributed with a flat rapidity plateau. This corresponds to longitudinal phase space where the transverse momenta are limited to a few hundred MeV, but longitudinal momenta cover the available phase space. This is in accordance with hadronization models, e.g. the Lund string model , where longitudinal momenta are given by a scaling fragmentation function and transverse momenta are strongly suppressed above the scale of soft interactions. The probability to have events with a gap, i.e. a region without particles, due to statistical fluctuations in such a rapidity distribution decreases exponentially with the size of the gap.

Experimentally one observes a much higher rate of gaps. Diffraction is nowadays often defined as events with large rapidity gaps which are not exponentially suppressed . This is, however, a wider definition than that previously often used in terms of a leading proton taking a large fraction (e.g. $`x_F\text{ }>0.9`$) of the beam proton momentum which enforces a rapidity gap simply by kinematical constraints. However, a gap can be anywhere in the event and therefore allow a forward system of higher mass than a single proton. The definition chosen reflects what the experiments actually observe. The leading protons go down the beam pipe and their detection require tracking detectors in ‘Roman pots’ which are moved into the beam pipe to cover the very small angles caused by the scattering itself or the bending out of the beam path by machine dipole magnets.

The simplest gap events occur in elastic and single diffractive scattering (Fig. 2a,b). Due to the scattered proton there is obviously an exchange of energy-momentum, but not of quantum numbers. In Regge phenomenology this is described as the exchange of an ‘object’ with vacuum quantum numbers called a pomeron (IP) after the Russian physicist Pomeranchuk. Regge theory  is a description based on analyticity for scattering amplitudes in high energy interactions without large momentum transfers, but it is not a theory based on a fundamental Lagrangian like QCD.

The kinematics of single diffraction can be specified in terms of two variables, e.g. the momentum fraction $`x_p=p_f/p_i`$ of the final proton relative to the initial one and the momentum transfer $`t=(p_ip_f)^2`$. The pomeron then takes the momentum fraction $`x_{IP}=1x_p`$ and has a negative mass-squared $`m_{IP}^2=t<0`$ meaning that it is a virtual exchanged object. The other proton produces a hadronic system $`X`$ of mass $`M_X^2=x_{IP}s`$, i.e. the invariant mass-squared of the ‘pomeron-proton collision’. The cross section for single diffraction (SD) is experimentally found to be well described by

$$\frac{d\sigma _{SD}}{dtdx}\frac{1}{x_{IP}}\left\{a_1e^{b_1t}+a_2e^{b_2t}+\mathrm{}\right\}\frac{a}{M_X^2}\left|F(t)\right|^2$$
(2)   
where the exponential damping in $`t`$ can be interpreted in terms of a proton form factor $`F(t)`$ giving the probability that the proton stays intact after the momentum ‘kick’ $`t`$. With $`x_{IP}<0.1`$ the maximum $`M_X`$ reachable at ISR, S$`p\overline{p}S`$, Tevatron and LHC are 20, 170, 570 GeV and 4.4 TeV, respectively. However, the rate of large $`M_X`$ events is suppressed due to the dominantly small pomeron momentum fraction. This is the reason why it took until 1985 to demonstrate that the rapidity distribution of hadrons in the $`X`$-system shows longitudinal phase space . Therefore, the pomeron-proton collision is similar to an ordinary hadron-proton interaction. This ruled out ‘fireball models’ giving a spherically symmetric final state having a Gaussian rapidity distribution . Thus, the hadronic final state provides information on the interaction dynamics producing it.

The Regge formalism relates the differential cross sections for different processes. This is achieved through the factorization of the different vertices such that the same kind of vertex in different processes is given by the same expression. The exchange of other than vacuum quantum numbers are described as, e.g., meson exchanges. Since the exchanged object is not a real state, but virtual with a negative mass-squared, it is actually a representation of a whole set of states (e.g. mesons) with essentially the same quantum numbers. The spin versus the mass-squared of such a set gives a linear relation which can be extrapolated to $`m^2=t<0`$ and provides the trajectory $`\alpha (t)`$ for the exchange. This provides the essential energy dependence $`\sigma s^{2\alpha (t)2}`$ of the cross section. The pomeron trajectory $`\alpha _{IP}(t)=1+ϵ+\alpha ^{}t1.08+0.25t`$ has the largest value of all trajectories at $`t=0`$ (intercept) which leads to the dominant contribution to the hadron-hadron cross section. Contrary to the $`\pi `$ and $`\rho `$ trajectories, which have well known integer spin states at the pole positions $`t=m_{meson}^2`$, there are no real states on the pomeron trajectory. However, a recently found spin-2 glueball candidate with mass $`1926\pm 12`$ MeV  fits well on the pomeron trajectory.

This would be in accord with the suggestion that the pomeron is some gluonic system  which may be interpreted as a virtual glueball . In a modern QCD-based language it is natural to consider a pomeron-hadron analogy where the pomeron is a hadron-like object with a quark and gluon content. Pomeron-hadron interactions would then resemble hadron-hadron collisions and give final state hadrons in longitudinal phase space, just as observed. There was, however, another view in terms of a pomeron-photon analogy  where the pomeron is considered to have an effective pointlike coupling to quarks. Single diffractive scattering would then be similar to deep inelastic scattering and the exchanged pomeron scatters a quark out of the proton, leading to a longitudinal phase space after hadronization. This fits well with the experimental evidence for pomeron single-quark interactions .

## 3 Idea and discovery of diffractive hard scattering

To explore the diffractive interaction further, we  introduced in 1984 the new idea that one should use a hard scattering process to probe the pomeron interaction at the parton level. In retrospect this seems obvious and simple, but at that time it was quite radical and was criticised. The idea was launched before the observations of longitudinal event structure in diffraction, the glueball candidate on the pomeron trajectory and the pomeron single-quark interactions discussed above. Furthermore, diffraction was at that time a side issue in particle physics that was ignored by most people.

Based on the pomeron factorization hypothesis, the diffractive hard scattering process was considered  in terms of an exchanged pomeron and a pomeron-particle interaction were a hard scattering process on the parton level may take place as illustrated in Fig. 3. The diffractive hard scattering cross section can then be expressed as the product of the inclusive single diffractive cross section and the ratio of the pomeron-proton cross sections for producing jets and anything, i.e.

$$\frac{d\sigma _{jj}}{dtdM_X^2}=\frac{d\sigma _{SD}}{dtdM_X^2}\frac{\sigma (IPpjj)}{\sigma (IPpX)}$$
(3)   
Here, $`d\sigma _{SD}`$ can be taken as the parametrization of data in eq. (2) and the total pomeron-proton cross section $`\sigma (IPpX)`$ can be extracted from data using the Regge formalism resulting in a value of order 1 mb. Together these parts of eq. (3) can be seen as an expression for a pomeron flux $`f_{IP/p}(x_{IP},t)`$ in the beam proton. The cross section for pomeron-proton to jets, $`\sigma (IPpjj)`$, is assumed to be given by pQCD as

$$\sigma (IPpjj)=𝑑x_1𝑑x_2𝑑\widehat{t}\underset{ij}{}f_{i/IP}(x_1,Q^2)f_{j/p}(x_2,Q^2)\frac{d\widehat{\sigma }}{d\widehat{t}}$$
(4)   
where a parton density function $`f_{i/IP}`$ for the pomeron is introduced in analogy with those for ordinary hadrons. The pomeron parton density functions were basically unknown, but assuming the pomeron to be gluon dominated it was resonable to try $`xg(x)=ax(1x)`$ or $`xg(x)=b(1x)^5`$ for the cases of only two gluons or of many gluons similar to the proton. Similarly, if the pomeron were essentially a $`q\overline{q}`$ system one would guess $`xq(x)=cx(1x)`$. The normalisation constants $`a,b,c`$ can be chosen to saturate the momentum sum rule $`_0^1𝑑x_ixf_{i/IP}(x)=1`$, which seems like a reasonable assumption to get started.

This formalism allows numerical estimates for diffractive hard scattering cross sections. Diffractive jet cross sections at the CERN S$`p\overline{p}`$S collider energy were found  to be large enough to be observable. Furthermore, turning the formalism into a Monte Carlo (MC) program (precursor to Pompyt  described below) to simulate complete events, demonstrated a clearly observable event signature: a leading proton ($`x_F\text{ }>0.9`$) separated by a large rapidity gap from a central hadronic system with high-$`p_{}`$ jets.

Based on these predictions, the UA8 experiment was approved and constructed. It had Roman pots in the beam pipes to measure the momentum of leading (anti)protons and used the UA2 central detector to observe jets. The striking event signature were observed in 1987  signalling the discovery of the diffractive hard scattering phenomenon, which was investigated further with more data .

The observed jets showed the characteristic properties of QCD jets as quantified in the Monte Carlo, e.g. jet $`E_{}`$ and angular distributions and energy profiles. The longitudinal momentum of the jets gives information on the momentum fraction ($`x_1`$ in Fig. 3b) of the parton in the pomeron; a change in the shape of the $`x_1`$-distribution shifts the parton-parton cms with respect to the $`X`$ cms and thereby the momentum distribution of the jets . Comparison of data and the Monte Carlo shows a clear preference for a hard parton distribution . Using a quark or gluon distribution $`xf(x)x(1x)`$ gives a resonable description of the observed $`x_F`$-distribution of the jets, although giving too little in the tail at large $`x_F`$. This is more clearly seen, if instead of considering individual jets, one takes both jets in each event and plot the longitudinal momentum of this pair, Fig. 4. The excess at large $`x_F`$ can be described by having 30% of the pomeron structure function in terms of a super-hard component with partons taking the entire pomeron momentum, i.e. $`xf(x)\delta (1x)`$. The $`\delta `$-function can be seen as a representation of some more physical distribution which is very hard, e.g. $`xf(x)1/(1x)`$.

With the UA8 data alone, one cannot distinguish between gluons or quarks in the pomeron. The UA1 experiment has given some evidence for diffractive bottom production . This may be interpreted with a gluon-dominated pomeron such that the $`ggb\overline{b}`$ subprocess can be at work, but no firm conclusion can be made given the normalization uncertainty in the model and the experimental errors .

UA8 have recently provided the absolute cross section for diffractive jet production . This shows that, although the Monte Carlo model reproduces the shapes of various distributions, it overestimates the absolute cross section; $`\sigma (data)/\sigma (model)=0.30\pm 0.10`$ or $`0.56\pm 0.19`$ for the model with the pomeron as a gluonic or a $`q\overline{q}`$ state, respectively. This have raised questions concerning the normalization of the pomeron flux and the pomeron structure function, as will be discussed in section 5.

In summary, diffractive hard scattering has been discovered by UA8 and the main features can be interpreted in terms of an exchanged pomeron with a parton structure.

## 4 Rapidity gap events at HERA and the Tevatron

The above model for diffractive hard scattering can be naturally extended to other kinds of particle collisions, $`a+pp+X`$ where $`a`$ can not only be any hadron but also a lepton or a photon. Based on the pomeron factorization hypothesis  the cross section is $`d\sigma (a+pp+X)=f_{IP/p}(x_{IP},t)d\sigma (a+IPX)`$. The pomeron flux can be taken as a simple parametrization of data in terms of exponentials as above, or obtained from Regge phenomenology in the form 

$$f_{IP/p}(x_{IP},t)=\frac{9\beta _0^2}{4\pi ^2}\left(\frac{1}{x_{IP}}\right)^{2\alpha _{IP}(t)1}\left[F_1(t)\right]^2$$
(5)   
with parameters obtained from data on hadronic inclusive diffractive scattering. Here, $`\beta =3.24GeV^2`$ is the mentioned effective pomeron-quark coupling and $`F_1(t)=(4m_p^2At)/(4m_p^2t)(1t/B)^2`$ is a proton form factor with $`m_p`$ the proton mass and parameters $`A=2.8,B=0.7`$. The pomeron trajectory is $`\alpha _{IP}(t)1.08+0.25t`$.

For the hard scattering cross section $`d\sigma (a+IPX)`$ one should use the relevant convolution of parton densities and parton cross sections, e.g. eq. (4) for hadron-pomeron collisions. In order to simulate complete events this formalism has been included in the Monte Carlo program Pompyt  based on the Lund Monte Carlo Pythia . In particular, there are options for different pomeron flux factors and parton densities. Moreover, Pompyt also contains pion exchange processes where a pion, with a flux factor and parton densities, replaces the pomeron as an example of other possible Regge exchanges.

### 4.1 Diffractive DIS at HERA

As suggested already in , one should probe the pomeron structure with deep inelastic scattering, e.g. at HERA. The advantage would be to have a clean process with a well understood point-like probe with high resolving power $`Q^2`$. The experimental signature should be clear; a quasi-elastically scattered proton (going down the beam pipe) well separated by a rapidity gap from the remaining hadronic system. The kinematics is then described by the diffractive variables $`x_{IP}`$ (or $`x_p=1x_{IP}`$) and $`t`$, as above, and the standard DIS variables $`Q^2=q^2=(p_ep_e^{})^2`$ and Bjorken $`x=Q^2/2Pq`$ (where $`P,p_e,p_e^{},q`$ are the four-momenta of the initial proton, initial electron, scattered electron and exchanged photon, respectively).

The cross section for diffractive DIS can then be written 

$$\frac{d\sigma (epepX)}{dxdQ^2dx_{IP}dt}=\frac{4\pi \alpha ^2}{xQ^4}\left(1y+\frac{y^2}{2}\right)F_2^D(x,Q^2;x_{IP},t)$$
(6)   
where the normal proton structure function $`F_2`$ has been replaced by a corresponding diffractive one, $`F_2^D`$, with $`x_{IP}`$ and $`t`$ specifying the diffractive conditions. Only the dominating electromagnetic interaction is here considered and $`R=\sigma _L/\sigma _T`$ is neglected for simplicity. If pomeron factorization holds, then $`F_2^D`$ can be factorized into a pomeron flux and a pomeron structure function, i.e. $`F_2^D(x,Q^2;x_{IP},t)=f_{IP/p}(x_{IP},t)F_2^{IP}(z,Q^2)`$ where the pomeron structure function $`F_2^{IP}(z,Q^2)=_fe_f^2\left(zq_f(z,Q^2)+z\overline{q}_f(z,Q^2)\right)`$ is given by the densities of (anti)quarks of flavour $`f`$ and with a fraction $`z=x/x_{IP}`$ of the pomeron momentum. Since the photon does not couple directly to gluons, they will only enter indirectly through $`gq\overline{q}`$ as described by QCD evolution or the photon-gluon fusion process.

Although diffractive DIS had been predicted in this way , it was a big surprise to many when it was observed first by ZEUS  and then by H1 . Since leading proton detectors were not available at that time, it was the large rapidity gap that was the characteristic observable, i.e. no particle or energy depositions in the forward part of the detector as shown in Fig. 5a. Leading protons have later been clearly observed , but the efficiency is low so the dominant diffractive data samples are still defined in terms of rapidity gaps. A simple observable to characterize the effect is $`\eta _{max}`$ giving, in each event, the maximum pseudo-rapidity where an energy deposition is observed. Fig. 5b shows the distribution of this quantity.

Although the bulk of the data with $`\eta _{max}`$ in the forward region is well described by ordinary DIS Monte Carlo events, there is a large excess with a smaller $`\eta _{max}`$ corresponding to the central region or even in the electron hemisphere. This excess is well described by Pompyt as deep inelastic scattering on an exchanged pomeron with a hard quark density. The gap events have the same $`Q^2`$ dependence as normal DIS and are therefore not some higher twist correction. Their overall rate is about 10% of all events, so it is not a rare phenomenon.

In normal DIS, a quark is scattered from the proton leaving a colour charged remnant (diquark in the simplest case). This gives rise to a colour field (e.g. a string) between the separated colour charges, such that the hadronization gives particles in the whole intermediate phase space region as illustrated in Fig. 6a. The gap events correspond to the scattering on a colour singlet object, Fig. 6b, which gives no colour field between the hard scattering system and the proton remnant system. Therefore, no hadrons are produced in the region between them, i.e. a rapidity gap appears. The size of the gap is basically a kinematic effect. The larger fraction of the proton beam momentum that is carried by the forward going colour singlet proton remnant system, the smaller fraction remains for other particles which therefore emerge at smaller rapidity. The forward going system $`Y`$ must have a small invariant mass in order to escape undetected in the beam pipe. It is mostly a proton with a large fraction of the beam momentum and only a very small angular deflection.

Since the $`Y`$ system is not observed the $`t`$ variable is not measured, but is usually negligibly small (c.f. the proton form factor above). However, with the invariant definitions

$`x_{IP}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{q(Pp_Y)}{qP}}={\displaystyle \frac{Q^2+M_X^2t}{Q^2+W^2m_p^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{x(Q^2+M_X^2)}{Q^2}}`$ (7)   
$`z=\beta `$ $`=`$ $`x/x_{IP}={\displaystyle \frac{q^2}{2q(Pp_Y)}}={\displaystyle \frac{Q^2}{Q^2+M_X^2t}}{\displaystyle \frac{Q^2}{Q^2+M_X^2}}`$ (8)   
$`x_{IP}`$ can be reconstructed from the DIS variables and the $`X`$-system. Likewise, $`z`$ (or $`\beta `$) can be measured and corresponds to Bjorken-$`x`$ for DIS on the pomeron and can therefore be interpreted as the momentum fraction of the parton in the pomeron.

From the measured cross section of rapidity gap events, the diffractive structure function $`F_2^D`$ can be extracted based on eq. (6). Since $`t`$ is not measured it is effectively integrated out giving the observable $`F_2^{D(3)}(x_{IP},\beta ,Q^2)`$. To a first approximation it was found  that the $`x_{IP}`$ dependence factorises and is of the form $`1/x_{IP}^n`$ with $`n=1.19\pm 0.06\pm 0.07`$. This is in basic agreement with the expectation $`f_{IP/p}1/x_{IP}^{2\alpha _{IP}(t)1}1/x_{IP}^{1.16+0.5t}`$ from the pomeron Regge trajectory above.

However, with the increased statistics and kinematic range available in the new data  displayed in Fig. 7, deviations from such a universal factorisation are observed. The power of the $`x_{IP}`$-dependence is found to depend on $`\beta `$. One way to interpret this is to introduce a subleading reggeon (IR) exchange with expected trajectory $`\alpha _{IR}(t)0.55+0.9t`$ and quantum numbers of the $`\rho ,\omega ,a`$ or $`f`$ meson . Fits to the data (Fig. 7) show that although the pomeron still dominates, the meson exchange contribution is important at larger $`x_{IP}`$ and causes $`F_2^D`$ to decrease slower (or $`x_{IP}F_2^{D(3)}`$ to even increase). The fit gives the intercepts $`\alpha _{IR}(0)=0.50\pm 0.19`$, in agreement with the expectation, and $`\alpha _{IP}(0)=1.20\pm 0.04`$ which is, however, significantly larger than 1.08 obtained from soft hadronic cross sections.

There is no evidence for a $`\beta `$ or $`Q^2`$ dependence in these intercepts and one can therefore integrate over $`x_{IP}`$ (using data and the fitted dependence), resulting in the measurement of $`F_2^D(\beta ,Q^2)`$ shown in Fig. 8. Following the above framework, this quantity can be interpreted as the structure function of the exchanged colour singlet object, which is mainly the pomeron. The fact that $`F_2^D`$ is essentially scale independent, i.e. almost constant with $`Q^2`$, shows that the scattering occurs on point charges. The small $`Q^2`$ dependence present is actually compatible with being logarithmic as in normal QCD evolution, although the rise with $`lnQ^2`$ persists up to large values of $`\beta `$ in contrast to the proton structure function. There is only a weak dependence on $`\beta `$ such that the partons are quite hard and there is no strong decrease at large momentum fraction which is characteristic for ordinary hadrons.

These features are in accordance with a substantial gluon component in the structure of the diffractive exchange, as confirmed by a quantitative QCD analysis . Standard next-to-leading order DGLAP evolution  gives a good fit of $`F_2^D(\beta ,Q^2)`$ as demonstrated in Fig. 8. The fitted momentum distributions of quarks and gluons in the pomeron are shown in Fig. 9. Clearly, the gluon dominates and carries 80–90% of the pomeron momentum depending on $`Q^2`$. At low $`Q^2`$ the gluon distribution may even be peaked at large momentum fractions, c.f. the superhard component observed by UA8 , but when evolved to larger $`Q^2`$ it then becomes flatter in $`\beta `$.

The general conclusion from these HERA data is therefore that the concept of an exchanged pomeron with a parton density seems appropriate. Moreover, Monte Carlo models, like Pompyt  and Rapgap  (which is also based on the above pomeron formalism), can give a good description of the observed rapidity gap events.

### 4.2 Diffractive $`W`$ and jets at the Tevatron

Based on the Pompyt model, predictions were also made  for diffractive $`W`$ and $`Z`$ production at the Tevatron $`p\overline{p}`$ collider, which provides sufficient energy in the pomeron-proton subsystem. With partons in the pomeron this occurs through the subprocesses $`q\overline{q}W`$ and $`gqqW`$ as illustrated in Fig. 10. The latter requires an extra QCD vertex $`gq\overline{q}`$ and is therefore suppressed by a factor $`\alpha _s`$. Thus, a gluon-dominated pomeron leads to a smaller diffractive $`W`$ cross section than a $`q\overline{q}`$-dominated pomeron. However, in both cases the cross sections were found to be large enough to be observable and the decay products of the $`W`$ ($`Z`$) often emerge in a central region covered by the detectors. Moreover, a measurement of these decay products, ideally muons from $`Z`$ decay, allows a reconstruction of the $`x`$-shape of the partons in the pomeron .

Diffractive $`W`$ production at the Tevatron was recently observed by CDF resulting in a diffractive to non-diffractive $`W`$ production ratio $`R_W=(1.15\pm 0.55)\%`$ . Since leading protons could not be detected, diffraction was defined in terms of a large forward rapidity gap, which in terms of a pomeron model corresponds to $`x_{IP}`$ dominantly in the range 0.01–0.05. The observed $`R_W`$ is much smaller than predicted with a $`q\overline{q}`$ dominated pomeron. Using Pompyt with the standard pomeron flux of eq. (5) and pomeron parton densities obtained from fits to the HERA diffractive DIS data, results in $`R_W=56\%`$, i.e. several standard deviations above the measured value!

Diffractive hard scattering has also been observed at the Tevatron in terms of rapidity gap events with two high-$`p_{}`$ jets (dijets) as in UA8. The detailed definitions of gaps and jets differ somewhat between CDF and D0, but the results are similar. The ratio of diffractive to non-diffractive dijet events found at $`\sqrt{s}=1800GeV`$ by CDF is $`R_{jj}=(0.75\pm 0.05\pm 0.09)\%`$  and by D0 $`R_{jj}=(0.76\pm 0.04\pm 0.07)\%`$ . D0 has also obtained the ratio $`R_{jj}=(1.11\pm 0.11\pm 0.20)\%`$ at the lower cms energy $`\sqrt{s}=630GeV`$. These rates are significantly lower than those obtained with the standard pomeron model with parton densities that fit the diffractive HERA data.

The inability to describe the data on hard diffraction from both HERA and the Tevatron with the same pomeron model raises questions on the universality of the model, e.g. concerning the pomeron flux and structure function. This is examined in Fig. 11 in terms of the momentum sum of the partons and the amount of gluons needed to fit the data. The region acceptable to HERA data is compatible with a saturated momentum sum rule, but in disagreement with the internally consistent $`p\overline{p}`$ collider data.

CDF has also very recently observed events with a central dijet system and rapidity gaps on both sides. On one side a high-$`x_F`$ antiproton is actually detected. This can be interpreted as double pomeron exchange (c.f. Fig. 2d), one from each of the quasi-elastically scattered proton and antiproton, where the two pomerons interact to produce the jets. The diffractive hard scattering model then contains a convolution of two pomeron flux factors and two pomeron parton densities with a QCD parton level cross section. The observed ratio of two-gap jet events to the single-gap jet events is found by CDF to be $`(0.26\pm 0.05\pm 0.05)\%`$ . An important observation is also that the $`E_{}`$-spectrum of the jets in these two-gap events have the same shape as in single-gap and no-gap events. This hints at the same underlying hard scattering dynamics which does not change with the soft processes that cause gaps or no-gaps. It is not yet clear whether this feature appears naturally in the pomeron model. However, the double pomeron exchange model, with pomeron flux and parton densities based on diffractive HERA data, seems to overestimate the rate of two-gap jet events .

## 5 Pomeron problems

The inability to describe both HERA and $`p\overline{p}`$ collider data on hard diffraction is a problem for the pomeron model. It shows that the ‘standard’ pomeron flux factor and pomeron parton densities cannot be used universally. A possible cure to this problem has been proposed in terms of a pomeron flux ‘renormalization’ . The flux in eq. (5) is found to give a much larger cross section for inclusive single diffraction than measured at $`p\overline{p}`$ colliders, although it works well for lower energy data. This is due to the increase of $`f_{IP}1/x_{IP}^{2\alpha _{IP}(t)1}`$ as the minimum $`x_{IPmin}=M_{Xmin}^2/s`$ gets smaller with increasing energy $`\sqrt{s}`$. To prevent that the integral of the pomeron flux increases without bound, it is proposed that it should saturate at unity, i.e. one renormalizes the pomeron flux by dividing with its integral whenever the integral is larger than unity. This prescription not only gives the correct inclusive single diffractive cross section at collider energies, but it also makes the HERA and Tevatron data on hard diffraction compatible with the pomeron hard scattering model. The model result for HERA is not affected, but at the higher energy of the Tevatron the pomeron flux is reduced such that the data are essentially reproduced. In another proposal  based on an analysis of single diffraction cross sections, the pomeron flux is reduced at small $`x_{IP}`$ through a $`x_{IP}`$\- and $`t`$-depending damping factor. Neither of these two modified pomeron flux factors have a clear theoretical basis.

A difference between diffraction in $`ep`$ and $`p\overline{p}`$ is the possibility for coherent pomeron interactions in the latter . In the incoherent interaction only one parton from the pomeron participates and any others are spectators. However, in the pomeron-proton interaction with $`IP=gg`$ both gluons may take part in the hard interaction giving a coherent interaction. For example, in the $`IPp`$ hard scattering subprocess $`ggq\overline{q}`$, the second gluon from the pomeron may couple to the gluon from the proton. Such diagrams cancel when summing over all final states for the inclusive hard scattering cross section (the factorization theorem). For gap events, however, the sum is not over all final states and the cancellation fails leading to factorization breaking and these coherent interactions where the whole pomeron momentum goes into the hard scattering system. With momentum fraction $`x`$ of the first gluon and $`1x`$ of the second, a factor $`1/(1x)`$ arises from the propagator of the second, soft gluon in the pomeron. This may motivate a super-hard component in the pomeron with effective structure function $`1/(1x)\delta (1x)`$ as in the UA8 data discussed above. This coherent interaction cannot occur in the same way in DIS since the pomeron interacts with a particle without coloured constituents. This difference between $`ep`$ and $`p\overline{p}`$ means that there should be no complete universality of parton densities in the pomeron.

Although modified pomeron models may describe the rapidity gap events reasonably well, there is no satisfactory understanding of the pomeron and its interaction mechanisms. On the contrary, there are conceptual and theoretical problems with this framework. The pomeron is not a real state, but can only be a virtual exchanged spacelike object. The concept of a structure function is then not well defined and, in particular, it is unclear whether a momentum sum rule should apply. In fact, the factorisation into a pomeron flux and a pomeron structure function cannot be uniquely defined since only the product is an observable quantity .

It may be incorrect to consider the pomeron as being ‘emitted’ by the proton, having QCD evolution as a separate entity and being ‘decoupled’ from the proton during and after the hard scattering. Since the pomeron-proton interaction is soft, its time scale is long compared to the short space-time scale of the hard interaction. It may therefore be natural to expect soft interactions between the pomeron system and the proton both before and after the snapshot of the high-$`Q^2`$ probe (as illustrated in Fig. 1c). The pomeron can then not be considered as decoupled from the proton and, in particular, is not a separate part of the QCD evolution in the proton.

Large efforts have been made to understand the pomeron as two-gluon system or gluon ladder in pQCD. By going to the soft limit one may then hope to gain understanding of non-pQCD. Perhaps one could establish a connection between pQCD in the small-$`x`$ limit and Regge phenomenology. More explicitly, attempts have been made to connect the Regge pomeron with gluon ladders in pQCD. For example, the analogy between the Regge triple pomeron diagram for single diffractive scattering has been connected with the gluon ladder fan diagram in pQCD to estimate the pomeron gluon density . The fan diagrams are described by the GLR equation  which gives a novel QCD evolution with non-linear effects due to gluon recombination $`ggg`$. This reduces the gluon density at small-$`x`$ (screening); an effect that could be substantial in the pomeron .

Diffractive DIS has been considered in terms of models based on two-gluon exchange in pQCD, see e.g. . The basic idea is to take two gluons in a colour singlet state from the proton and couple them to the $`q\overline{q}`$ system from the virtual photon. With higher orders included the diagrams and calculations become quite involved. Nevertheless, these formalisms can be made to describe the main features of the diffractive DIS data. Although this illustrates the possibilities of the pQCD approach to the pomeron, one is still forced to include non-perturbative modelling to connect the two gluons in a soft vertex to the proton. Thus, even if one can gain understanding by working as far as possible in pQCD, one cannot escape the fundamental problem of understanding non-pQCD.

## 6 Non-perturbative QCD and soft colour interactions

The main problem in understanding diffractive interactions is related to our poor theoretical knowledge about non-pQCD. The Regge approach with a pomeron can apparently be made to work phenomenologically, but has problems as discussed above. Therefore, new models have recently been constructed without using the pomeron concept or Regge phenomenology. Instead, they are based on new ideas on soft colour interactions that give colour rearrangements which affect the hadronization and thereby the final state. These models have first been developed for diffractive DIS which is a simpler and cleaner process than diffraction in $`p\overline{p}`$ collisions.

One model  to understand diffractive DIS at HERA exploits the dominance of the photon-gluon fusion process $`\gamma ^{}gq\overline{q}`$ at small-$`x`$. The $`q\overline{q}`$ pair is produced in a colour octet state, but it is here assumed that soft interactions with the proton colour field randomizes the colour. The $`q\overline{q}`$ pair would then be in an octet or singlet state with probability 8/9 and 1/9, respectively. When in a singlet state, the $`q\overline{q}`$ pair hadronizes independently of the proton remnant, which should result in a lack of particles in between. From the photon-gluon fusion matrix element one then obtains the diffractive structure function

$$F_2^D(x,Q^2,\xi )\frac{1}{9}\frac{\alpha _s}{2\pi }\underset{q}{}e_q^2g(\xi )\beta \{[\beta ^2+(1\beta )^2]\mathrm{ln}\frac{Q^2}{m_g^2\beta ^2}2+6\beta (1\beta )\}$$
(9)   
where 1/9 is the colour singlet probability. The next factor, including the density $`g(\xi )`$ of gluons with momentum fraction $`\xi `$, corresponds to a pomeron flux factor. The $`\beta `$-dependent factor corresponds to the pomeron structure function $`F_2^D(\beta ,Q^2)`$ above, with $`\beta =x/\xi `$ as usual. Thus, there is an effective factorisation which is similar to pomeron models. The gluon mass parameter $`m_g`$ regulates the divergence in the QCD matrix element and is chosen so as to saturate the DIS cross section at small-$`x`$ with the photon-gluon fusion process. The model reproduces main features of the gap events, such as their overall rate and $`Q^2`$ dependence. However, it is simple and does not take into account higher order parton emissions and hadronization. Therefore, it cannot give as detailed predictions as the Monte Carlo models above.

In the same general spirit another model was developed independently using a Monte Carlo event generator approach . The starting point is the normal DIS parton interactions, with pQCD corrections in terms of matrix elements and parton showers in the initial and final state. The basic new idea is that there may be additional soft colour interactions (SCI) between the partons at a scale below the cut-off $`Q_0^2`$ for the perturbative treatment. Obviously, interactions will not disappear below this cut-off, the question is rather how to describe them properly. The proposed SCI mechanism can be viewed as the perturbatively produced quarks and gluons interacting softly with the colour medium of the proton as they propagate through it. This should be a natural part of the process in which ‘bare’ perturbative partons are ‘dressed’ into non-perturbative ones and the formation of the confining colour flux tube in between them. These soft interactions cannot change the momenta of the partons significantly, but may change their colour and thereby affect the colour structure of the event. This corresponds to a modified topology of the string in the Lund model approach, as illustrated in Fig. 12, such that another final state will arise after hadronization.

Lacking a proper understanding of non-perturbative QCD processes a simple model was constructed to describe and simulate soft colour interactions. The hard parton level interactions are treated in the normal way using the Lepto Monte Carlo  based on the standard electroweak cross section together with pQCD matrix elements and parton showers. The perturbative parts of the model are kept unchanged, since these hard processes cannot be altered by softer non-pQCD ones. Thus, the set of partons, including the quarks in the proton remnant, are generated as in conventional DIS. The SCI model is added by giving each pair of these colour charged partons the possibility to make a soft interaction, changing only the colour and not the momentum. This may be viewed as soft non-perturbative gluon exchange. Being a non-perturbative process, the exchange probability cannot be calculated and is therefore described by a phenomenological parameter $`R`$. The number of soft exchanges will vary event-by-event and change the colour topology such that, in some cases, colour singlet subsystems arise separated in rapidity as shown in Fig. 12bc. Here, (b) can be seen as a switch of anticolour between the antiquark and the diquark and (c) as a switch of colour between the two quarks. Colour exchange between the perturbatively produced partons and the partons in the proton remnant (representing the colour field of the proton) are of particular importance for the gap formation.

Both gap and no-gap events arise in this model. The rate and main properties of the gap events are qualitatively reproduced , e.g. the $`\eta _{max}`$ distribution in Fig. 5b and the diffractive structure function $`F_2^{D(3)}`$. The gap rate depends on the parameter $`R`$, but the dependence is not strong giving a stable model with $`R0.2`$–0.5. This colour exchange probability is the only new parameter in the model. Other parameters belong to the conventional DIS model  and have their usual values. The rate and size of gaps do, however, depend on the amount of parton emission. In particular, more initial state parton shower emissions will tend to populate the forward rapidity region and prevent gap formation .

The gap events show properties characteristic of diffraction as demonstrated in Fig. 13. The exponential $`t`$-dependence arises in the model from the gaussian intrinsic transverse momentum (Fermi motion) of the interacting parton which is balanced by the proton remnant system, i.e. $`exp(k_{}^2/\sigma _i^2)`$ with $`\sigma _i0.4GeV`$ and $`tk_{}^2`$. The forward system (Fig. 13b) is dominantly a single proton, as in diffractive scattering, but there is also a tail corresponding to proton dissociation. The longitudinal momentum spectrum of protons in Fig. 13c shows a clear peak at large fractional momentum $`x_L`$. Defining events having a leading proton with $`x_L>0.95`$ as ‘diffractive’, one observes in Fig. 13bc that most of these events fulfill the gap requirement.

One may ask whether this kind of soft colour interaction model is essentially a model for the pomeron. This is not the case as long as no pomeron or Regge dynamics is introduced. The behaviour of the data on $`F_2^D(\beta ,Q^2)`$ in Fig. 8 is in the SCI model understood as normal pQCD evolution in the proton. The rise with $`lnQ^2`$ also at larger $`\beta `$ is simply the normal behaviour at the small momentum fraction $`x=\beta x_{IP}`$ of the parton in the proton. Here, $`x_{IP}`$ is only an extra variable related to the gap size or $`M_X`$ (eq. (7)) which does not require a pomeron interpretation. The flat $`\beta `$-dependence (Fig. 8b) of $`x_{IP}F_2^D=\frac{x}{\beta }F_2^D`$ is due to the factor $`x`$ compensating the well-known increase at small-$`x`$ of the proton structure function $`F_2`$.

This Monte Carlo model gives a general description of DIS, with and without gaps. In fact, it can give a fair account for such ‘orthogonal’ observables as rapidity gaps and the large forward $`E_{}`$ flow . Diffractive events are in this model defined through the topology of the final state, in terms of rapidity gaps or leading protons just as in experiments. There is no particular theoretical mechanism or description in a separate model, like pomeron exchange, that defines what is labelled as diffraction. This provides a smooth transition between diffractive gap events and non-diffractive no-gap events . In addition, leading neutrons are also obtained in fair agreement with recent experimental measurements . In a conventional Regge-based approach, pomeron exchange would be used to get diffraction, pion exchange added to get leading neutrons and still other exchanges added to get a smooth transition to normal DIS. The SCI model indicates that a simpler theoretical description can be obtained.

The same SCI model can also be applied to $`p\overline{p}`$ collisions, by introducing it in the Pythia Monte Carlo . This leads to gap events in hard scattering interactions as illustrated for $`W`$ production in Fig. 14. It is amazing that the same SCI model, normalized to the diffractive HERA data, reproduces the above discussed rates of diffractive $`W`$’s and diffractive jet production observed at the Tevatron .

The soft colour interactions do not only lead to rapidity gaps, but also to other striking effects. They have been found  to reproduce the observed rate of high-$`p_{}`$ charmonium and bottomonium at the Tevatron, which are factors of 10 larger than predictions based on conventional pQCD. The SCI model included in Pythia accomplish this through the standard pQCD parton level processes of heavy quark pair production. The most important contribution comes from a high-$`p_{}`$ gluon which splits in a $`Q\overline{Q}`$ pair, e.g. the next-to-leading process $`gggQ\overline{Q}`$, where the colour octet charge of the $`Q\overline{Q}`$ can be turned into a singlet through SCI. The $`Q\overline{Q}`$ pairs with mass below the threshold for open heavy flavour production, are then mapped onto the various quarkonium states using spin statistics. The results  are in good agreement with the data, both in terms of absolute normalization and the shapes. Also details like the rates of different quarkonium states and the fraction of $`J/\psi `$ produced directly or from decays are reproduced quite well.

This simple model for soft colour interactions is quite successful to describe a lot of data, both for diffractive and non-diffractive events. Of course, it is only a very simple model and far from a theory, but it may lead to a proper description. A very recent step in this direction is the use of an area law for string dynamics .

The SCI model has similarities with other attempts to understand soft dynamics. Soft interactions of a colour charge moving through a colour medium has been considered and argued to give rise to large $`K`$-factors in Drell-Yan processes and synchrotron radiation of soft photons . A semi-classical approach to describe the interaction of a $`q\overline{q}`$ pair with a background colour field of a proton has been developed into a model for diffraction in DIS . The $`q\overline{q}`$, which is here a fluctuation of the exchanged virtual photon, can emerge in a colour singlet state after the interaction with the proton such that a rapidity gap can arise. This provides a very interesting theoretical framework giving results in basic agreement with data, although one cannot make as detailed comparisons as with a Monte Carlo model.

Other attempts to gain understanding through phenomenological models have also been made in the same general spirit as the SCI model. The colour evaporation model  can reproduce rapidity gap data and charmonium production with fitted parameters to regulate the probability of forming colour singlet systems. Changes of colour string topologies have also been investigated  in a different context, namely $`e^+e^{}W^+W^{}q_1\overline{q}_2q_3\overline{q}_4`$. This gives two strings that may interact and cause colour reconnections resulting in a different string topology affecting the $`W`$ mass reconstruction and Bose-Einstein effects.

In conclusion, there has been an increased interest in recent years to explore non-pQCD through various theoretical attempts and phenomenological soft interaction models.

## 7 Rapidity gaps between jets

The diffractive events discussed so far always had a rapidity gap adjacent to a leading proton or small mass system. The momentum transfer between the initial proton and this very forward system is always very small (exponential $`t`$-distribution) as characteristic of soft processes. This applies whether the high-mass $`X`$-system contains hard scattering or not. In $`p\overline{p}`$ collisions at the Tevatron one has discovered a new kind of rapidity gaps, namely where the gap is in the central region and between two jets with high $`p_{}`$, i.e. ‘jet-gap-jet’ events.

In a sample of $`p\overline{p}`$ events at $`\sqrt{s}=1800GeV`$ having two jets with transverse energy $`E_{}^{jet}>20GeV`$, pseudorapidity $`1.8<|\eta _{jet}|<3.5`$ and $`\eta _{jet1}\eta _{jet2}<0`$, CDF finds  that a fraction $`R_{jgj}=(1.13\pm 0.12\pm 0.11)\%`$ has a rapidity gap within $`|\eta |<1`$ between the jets. At $`\sqrt{s}=630GeV`$ the CDF result is $`R_{jgj}=(2.7\pm 0.7\pm 0.6)\%`$ with $`E_{}^{jet}>8GeV`$ which corresponds to approximately the same momentum fraction $`x`$ of the interacting partons at the two cms energies. D0 finds  very similar results in terms of ‘colour singlet fractions’ $`f_s=(0.94\pm 0.04\pm 0.12)\%`$ for $`E_{}^{jet}>30GeV`$ at $`\sqrt{s}=1800GeV`$ and $`f_s=(1.85\pm 0.09\pm 0.37)\%`$ for $`E_{}^{jet}>12GeV`$ at $`\sqrt{s}=630GeV`$. Although the CDF and D0 event selections and analyses differ, the resulting relative rates of jet-gap-jet events are quite similar. They are definitely larger at the lower energy. In D0 the ratios tend to increase with increasing $`E_{}^{jet}`$ and rapidity separation between the jets, but the CDF data shows no significant such effect.

The jet-gap-jet events can be interpreted in terms of colour singlet exchange. However, the momentum transfer $`|t|E_{jet}^2>100GeV^2`$ is very large in contrast to the small $`t`$ in ordinary diffraction. An interpretation in terms of the Regge pomeron is therefore not possible, but attempts have been made using pQCD models of two-gluon exchange. Such models seems at first to give energy and $`E_{}^{jet}`$ dependences that are not consistent with the data, but recent developments indicate that this need not be the case . The salient features of the data can, on the other hand, be interpreted in terms of the colour evaporation model . A problem with both these approaches is however, that they do not take proper account of higher order pQCD parton emissions, multiple parton-parton scattering and hadronization. These are well known problems for the understanding of the ‘underlying event’ in hadron-hadron collisions and must be investigated with detailed Monte Carlo models. For example, the perturbative radiation in a high-$`p_{}`$ scattering must be included since it cannot be screened by soft interactions. The proposed models attempts to describe all these effects through a ‘gap survival probability’ . However, a real understanding of gap between jets is still lacking.

## 8 Conclusions

Diffractive hard scattering has in recent years been established as a field of its own with many developments in both theory and experiment. Rapidity gap events have been observed with various hard scattering processes; high-$`p_{}`$ jet and $`W`$ production, and deep inelastic scattering.

The model with a pomeron having a parton structure is quite successful in describing data, in particular for diffractive DIS at HERA where parton densities in the pomeron have been extracted. However, the pomeron model has some problems. The pomeron flux and/or the pomeron parton densities are not universal to all kinds of interactions, or they are more complicated with, e.g., a flux renormalization. Even if such modified pomeron models can be made to describe data both from $`ep`$ and $`p\overline{p}`$, there are conceptual problems with the pomeron. In particular, it is doubtful whether the pomeron can be viewed as a separate entity which is decoupled from the proton during the long space-time scale of the soft interaction.

The general problem is soft interactions in non-perturbative QCD. Perhaps Regge theory is the proper soft limit of QCD, but it may also exist more fruitful roads towards a theory for soft interactions. This has generated an increased interest to explore new theoretical approaches and phenomenological models.

A new trend is to consider the interactions of partons with a colour background field. The hard pQCD processes should then be treated as usual, but soft interactions are added which change the colour topology resulting in a different final state after hadronization. In the Monte Carlo model for soft colour interactions this gives a unified description with a smooth transition between diffractive and non-diffractive events. The different event classes can then be defined as in experiments, e.g. in terms of rapidity gaps or leading protons. This model and others in a similar general spirit can describe the salient features of many different kinds of experimental data.

Nevertheless, there are many unsolved problems that are challenging to solve. In particular, the events with a rapidity gap between two high-$`p_{}`$ jets are poorly understood. Progress in the field of diffractive hard scattering will contribute to the ultimate goal: to understand non-perturbative QCD.

Acknowledgments: I am grateful to Tom Ferbel and all the participants for a most enjoyable school.