Gluonic Origin and Glueball Nature of Pomeron

The Pomeron-nucleon coupling vertex is theoretically derived from the fundamental theory of strong interaction QCD. The empirical vertex βγ^μF₁(t) used commonly in diffractive processes with a coupling strength β=6.0 GeV^-1 is initially obtained from QCD theoretically. Our study not only reproduces the Pomeron-nucleon coupling from QCD but also clearly shows the gluonic origin and glueball nature of Pomeron, which is a longstanding puzzle. From this investigation, we claim that Pomeron can be regarded as a Reggeized tensor glueball ξ(2230) with quantum numbers of I^GJ^PC=0⁺2⁺⁺. Since the tensor glueball ξ(2230) lies on the Pomeron trajectory α_p(t=M_ξ²)=2, the longstanding puzzle that no physical particle lies on the Pomeron trajectory, α_p(t)=1.08+0.20 GeV^-2•t, seems to be solved.