Scattering amplitude and pomeron loops in perturbative QCD at large $N_c$

TL;DR

This paper calculates the lowest order pomeron loop amplitude in perturbative QCD, showing that loop contributions become dominant at high rapidities, with a detailed analysis of the triple-pomeron vertex.

Contribution

It provides a detailed calculation of pomeron loops in perturbative QCD, including full conformal weight dependence, highlighting their significance at high rapidities.

Findings

Loop contributions dominate single pomeron exchange at rapidities 8-10.

Full conformal weight dependence of the triple-pomeron vertex is incorporated.

Numerical results demonstrate the increasing importance of pomeron loops at high energies.

Abstract

The amplitude for the collision of two hadrons with the lowest order pomeron loop is calculated. Numerical calculations show that the loop contribution to the amplitude begins to dominate the single pomeron exchange at rapidities 8-10. Full dependence of the triple-pomeron vertex on intermediate conformal weights is taken into account.