A simple model for high-energy nucleon-nucleon elastic diffraction and exclusive diffractive electroproduction of vector mesons on protons

TL;DR

This paper introduces a simple Regge-eikonal model for high-energy nucleon-nucleon elastic diffraction and vector meson electroproduction, demonstrating universality of the pomeron trajectory and providing LHC cross-section predictions.

Contribution

It presents a unified, simple reggeon-based model for various high-energy diffractive processes, emphasizing the universality of the pomeron trajectory.

Findings

Pomeron trajectory has an intercept about 1.31.

Model predictions align with existing data on proton structure functions.

Projections for proton-proton cross-sections at LHC energies are provided.

Abstract

The processes of exclusive diffractive scattering $p+p\to p+p$, $\bar p+p\to\bar p+p$, and $\gamma^*+p\to V+p$ at high energies are considered in the framework of a unified Regge-eikonal model with a very simple reggeon structure of the eikonal. It is demonstrated that the pomeron trajectory is universal in all reactions and having intercept about 1.31 which could be exctracted explicitly from the data on the proton structure function $F_2(x,Q^2)$. The predictions for the proton-proton cross-sections at LHC energies are given.