Vector meson production at low x from gauge/gravity duality

TL;DR

This paper employs gauge/gravity duality to analyze vector meson production at low x in electron-proton scattering, successfully matching experimental data and providing insights into strong coupling effects in QCD.

Contribution

It introduces a holographic model incorporating the pomeron as a graviton Regge trajectory in AdS space to describe vector meson production at low x.

Findings

Model agrees with HERA H1 data on total cross-sections

Achieves low chi-squared fit for differential cross-sections

Confirms the applicability of gauge/gravity duality to low x DIS processes

Abstract

We use gauge/gravity duality to study vector meson (J/{\Psi}, {\rho}_0, {\Omega}, {\Phi}) production in electron-proton scattering, in the limit of high center of mass energy at fixed momentum transfer, corresponding to the limit of low Bjorken x, where the process is dominated by pomeron exchange. Our approach considers the pomeron at strong coupling, described by the graviton Regge trajectory in AdS space with a hard-wall to mimic confinement effects. Both the proton and vector mesons are described by simple holographic wave functions in AdS. This model agrees with HERA H1 data with a {\chi}^2 per degree of freedom below one on total cross-sections, and below two on differential cross-sections, confirming the success of previous studies that model low x DIS and DVCS using gauge/gravity duality.