Diffractive meson production from virtual photons with odd charge-parity exchange

We calculate the cross section of diffractive charge-parity neutral meson production in virtual photon proton collision at high energies. Due to the opposite -parities of photon and meson () this process probes the -channel odderon exchange which is described here as noninteracting three–gluon exchange. Estimates for the cross section of inelastic diffractive process are presented. The total cross section of diffractive meson photoproduction is found to be 47 pb. The cross sections for the diffractive production of light mesons () in collisions are of the same order if the photon virtuality is . Received: 30 July 1997     

Diffractive \eta_c photo-and electroproduction with the perturbative QCD Odderon

Using a set of new odderon states, we calculate their contribution to the diffractive photo- and electroproduction process. Compared to previous simple 3-gluon exchange calculations we find an enhancement of about one order of magnitude in the cross section. The t-dependence of the cross section exhibits a dip structure in the small t region. Received: 18 March 2001 / Published online: 11 May 2001     

Observing the odderon: tensor meson photoproduction

We calculate high-energy photoproduction of the tensor meson by odderon and photon exchange in the reaction , where X is either the nucleon or the sum of the N(1520) and N(1535) baryon resonances. Odderon exchange dominates except at very small transverse momentum, and we find a cross section of about 20 nb at a centre-of-mass energy of 20 GeV. This result is compared with what is currently known experimentally about photoproduction. We conclude that odderon exchange is not ruled out by present data. On the contrary, an odderon-induced cross section of the above magnitude may help to explain a puzzling result observed by the E687 experiment. Received: 16 February 2000 / Published online: 8 May 2000     

Diffractive production of dijets at HERA

We investigate the production of a quark-antiquark pair in diffractive photon-proton scattering, approximating soft pomeron exchange by the exchange of two nonperturbative gluons. In deep inelastic scattering at HERA, events with two jets and the scattered proton in the final state are predicted to be observable, with an important contribution from charm production. For photoproduction of light quark jets with high transverse momentum we find that both exchanged gluons must have a large invariant mass, so that the cross section is very small, whereas for charm quarks it is quite appreciable. From our calculation we also extract the quark structure function of the pomeron for the scaling variablez no too close to 0 or 1, finding a strong flavour dependence and a behaviour somewhat harder thanz(1?z) for light quarks.     

Single pseudoscalar meson production in diffractive ep scattering

Exclusive pseudoscalar meson production in scattering at high energies is a direct probe for a possible “odderon” exchange in soft hadronic processes. Using a simple phenomenological ansatz for the odderon, we demonstrate how it can be separated from the contribution due to photon-photon fusion, and the relevant parameters be measured. Total cross sections and differential distributions are presented for , and production. Results are given from both a full calculation and one using the equivalent photon approximation. The accuracy of the latter is discussed. Received: 18 December 1997 / Published online: 10 March 1998     

The odderon in high energy elastic pp scattering

We study the odderon contribution to elastic pp and scattering at high energies. Different models for the odderon–proton coupling are considered and their effects on the differential cross section in the dip region are investigated. We use a Regge fit by Donnachie and Landshoff as a framework and replace its odderon contribution by the different models. We consider two models for the odderon–proton impact factor proposed by Fukugita and Kwieciński and by Levin and Ryskin. In addition we construct a geometric model of the proton which allows us to put limits on the size of a possible diquark cluster in the proton. All models are able to describe the data well. The two models for the impact factor require the strong coupling constant to be fixed rather precisely. In the geometric model a relatively small diquark size is required to describe the data. Received: 1 February 2002 / Published online: 14 June 2002     

Hard diffractive photon-proton scattering at large |t|

We propose to test perturbative QCD(pQCD) in the Regge limit by means of diffractive photon scattering, , at large and very high energies, . The helicity amplitudes of this process were calculated using the Lipatov solution of the BFKL equation for . We found that the perturbatively calculated cross section for this process is comparable in magnitude to the cross section for photoproduction assuming similar kinematics. Received: 9 September 1998 / Revised version: 2 October 1998 / Published online: 14 January 1999     

\gamma^* \gamma^* reactions at high energies

The total hadronic cross sections at high energy are calculated as a function of energy and photon virtuality in a model combining Reggeon exchange, the quark box diagram (a fixed pole in Regge language) and soft and hard pomeron exchanges evaluated in the context of dipole-dipole scattering. Good agreement is obtained with the data for the real cross section and for the real photon structure function . However the model prediction for the cross section is too small. This is attributed to an incorrect extrapolation of the dependence of the hard pomeron adopted here. Parametrising it independently shows that the hard part of the cross section can be well represented by a simple Regge pole with intercept . Received: 19 August 1999 / Published online: 3 February 2000     

Probing the structure of the pomeron

We suggest that the pseudo-rapidity cut dependence of diffractive deep-inelastic scattering events at HERA may provide a sensitive test of models of diffraction. A comparison with the experimental cross section shows that the Donnachie-Landshoff model and a simple two-gluon exchange model of the pomeron model are disfavoured. However a model with a direct coupling of the pomeron to quarks is viable for a harder quark–pomeron form factor, as is a model based on the leading-twist operator contribution. We also consider a direct-coupling scalar pomeron model. We comment on the implications of these results for the determination of the partonic structure of the pomeron. Received: 5 March 1999 / Published online: 3 August 1999     

Photon-exchange processes at hadron colliders as a probe of the dynamics of diffraction

The rich structure of photon-exchange processes at hadron colliders is studied. We discuss central vector meson production , W production and production. Each process has distinct, and large, soft pp rescattering effects, which can be directly observed by detecting the outgoing protons. This allows a probe of the optical density of the proton, which plays a crucial role in the evaluation of the rapidity gap survival probabilities in diffractive-like processes at hadron colliders. We note that an alternative mechanism for production is odderon, instead of photon, exchange; and that the ratio of odderon to photon contributions is enhanced (suppressed) for vector meson production. Received: 1 February 2002 / Revised version: 4 April 2002 / Published online: 22 May 2002     

Open charm production in diffractive ep collisions

The cross section for the diffractive reactionγ + p → cc + p with a real or virtual photon is calculated in the nonperturbative two-gluon exchange model of Landshoff and Nachtmann. Numerical predictions are given for cross sections and spectra at typical HERA values of c.m. energy and photon virtuality. The contribution of charm to the diffractive structure function is evaluated and found to be rather small in the model, and the ratio between the production rates for bb and cc is tiny.     

Diffractive dijet cross sections in photoproduction at HERA

Differential dijet cross sections have been measured with the ZEUS detector for photoproduction events in which the hadronic final state containing the jets is separated with respect to the outgoing proton direction by a large rapidity gap. The cross section has been measured as a function of the fraction of the photon () and pomeron () momentum participating in the production of the dijet system. The observed dependence shows evidence for the presence of a resolved- as well as a direct-photon component. The measured cross section increases as increases indicating that there is a sizeable contribution to dijet production from those events in which a large fraction of the pomeron momentum participates in the hard scattering. These cross sections and the ZEUS measurements of the diffractive structure function can be described by calculations based on parton densities in the pomeron which evolve according to the QCD evolution equations and include a substantial hard momentum component of gluons in the pomeron. Received: 20 April 1998 / Published online: 2 July 1998     

Soft and hard Pomeron in the structure function of the proton at low x and low Q^2

We study inclusive electroproduction on the proton at low x and low using a soft and a hard Pomeron. The contribution of the soft Pomeron is based on the Stochastic Vacuum Model, in which a nonperturbative dipole-dipole cross section can be calculated by means of a gauge invariant gluon field strength correlator. To model the hard Pomeron exchange we phenomenologically extend the leading order evolution of a power-behaved structure function, , proposed by López and Ynduráin. This extension allows to consider both the case and the region of higher on the basis of the same parametrization. A good simultaneous fit to the data on and on the cross section of real photoproduction is obtained for . With four parameters we achieve a for 222 data points. In addition, we use our model of the inclusive interaction to compute the longitudinal structure function . Received: 6 December 1998 / Revised version: 19 April 1999 / Published online: 18 June 1999     

Spin effects in diffractive J/\Psi leptoproduction and the structure of Pomeron coupling

We calculate the cross section and asymmetry of the diffractive J/ leptoproduction for a simple model of a Pomeron coupling with a proton, which contains the term and a spin-dependent part. It is shown that the asymmetry caused by the Pomeron coupling does not vanish for nonzero . The sensitivity of the polarized diffractive J/ production to the spin-dependent part of the Pomeron coupling is found to be rather weak. As a result, it is difficult to study the structure of the Pomeron coupling with the proton in future polarized diffractive experiments on the J/ production. Received: 27 April 1999 / Revised version: 29 June 1999 / Published online: 14 October 1999     

Inelastic diffractive scattering in nonperturbative QCD

We examine diffractive proton-proton scattering and photo- and electroproduction of mesons , where X denotes a proton or a final state, into which the proton can go by diffractive dissociation. Using a functional integral approach we derive the scattering amplitudes, which are governed by the expectation values of light-like Wegner-Wilson loops, which are then evaluated using the model of the stochastic vacuum. For the proton, we assume a quark-diquark structure. From the scattering amplitudes we calculate total and differential cross sections for high centre of mass energy and small momentum transfer and compare with experiments. Furthermore we calculate isovector form factors for the proton and the pion within the same model. Received: 30 January 2001 / Revised version: 29 June 2001 / Published online: 3 August 2001     

An analysis of diffraction in deep-inelastic scattering

We propose a simple parametrization for the deep-inelastic diffractive cross section. It contains the contribution of production to both the longitudinal and the transverse diffractive structure functions, and of the production of final states from transverse photons. We start from the hard region and perform a suitable extrapolation into the soft region. We test our model on the 1994 ZEUS and H1 data, and confront it with the H1 conjecture of a singular gluon distribution. Received: 30 June 1998 / Revised version: 3 September 1998 / Pulished online: 3 December 1998     

J/\psi +{\mathrm{jet}} diffractive production in the direct photon process at HERA

We present a study of the diffractive production in direct photon processes at HERA based on the factorization theorem for lepton-induced hard diffractive scattering and the factorization formalism of the non-relativistic QCD (NRQCD) for quarkonia production. Using the diffractive gluon distribution function extracted from HERA data on diffractive deep inelastic scattering and diffractive dijet photon production, we demonstrate that this process is measurable at DESY HERA. The experimental study of this process can give valuable insight in the diffractive production mechanism and test the color-octet mechanism for heavy quarkonia production in a new environment. Received: 13 September 1999 / Revised version: 31 December 1999 / Published online: 6 April 2000     

Tests of QCD factorisation in the diffractive production of dijets in deep-inelastic scattering and photoproduction at HERA

Measurements are presented of differential dijet cross sections in diffractive photoproduction (Q²<0.01 GeV²) and deep-inelastic scattering processes (DIS, 4<Q²<80 GeV²). The event topology is given by ep→eXY, in which the system X, containing at least two jets, is separated from a leading low-mass baryonic system Y by a large rapidity gap. The dijet cross sections are compared with NLO QCD predictions based on diffractive parton densities previously obtained from a QCD analysis of inclusive diffractive DIS cross sections by H1. In DIS, the dijet data are well described, supporting the validity of QCD factorisation. The diffractive DIS dijet data are more sensitive to the diffractive gluon density at high fractional parton momentum than the measurements of inclusive diffractive DIS. In photoproduction, the predicted dijet cross section has to be multiplied by a factor of approximately 0.5 for both direct and resolved photon interactions to describe the measurements. The ratio of measured dijet cross section to NLO prediction in photoproduction is a factor 0.5±0.1 smaller than the same ratio in DIS. This suppression is the first clear observation of QCD hard scattering factorisation breaking at HERA. The measurements are also compared to the two soft colour neutralisation models SCI and GAL. The SCI model describes diffractive dijet production in DIS but not in photoproduction. The GAL model fails in both kinematic regions.     

Two-photon exchange contributions to elastic ep scattering in the non-local field formalism

We construct a non-local gauge-invariant Lagrangian to model the electromagnetic interaction of the proton. The Lagrangian includes all allowed operators with dimension up to five. We compute the two-photon exchange contribution to elastic electron–proton scattering using this effective non-local Lagrangian. The one-loop calculation in this model includes the standard box and cross box diagram with the standard on-shell form of the hadron electromagnetic vertices. Besides this we find an extra contribution, which depends on an unknown constant. We use experimentally extracted form factors for our calculation. We find that the correction to the reduced cross section is slightly non-linear as a function of the photon longitudinal polarization ε. The non-linearity seen is within the experimental error bars of the Rosenbluth data. The final result completely explains the difference between the form factor ratio G_E/G_M extracted by Rosenbluth separation technique at SLAC and polarization transfer technique at JLAB.