CGC/saturation approach for soft interactions at high energy: a two channel model

TL;DR

This paper develops a two-channel model combining the CGC/saturation approach and BFKL Pomeron to accurately describe high-energy soft interactions, including elastic and diffraction cross sections, with parameters fitted to experimental data.

Contribution

It introduces a two-channel model that improves upon previous single-channel approaches by incorporating a more realistic hadron structure within the CGC/saturation framework.

Findings

Successfully describes elastic slope and diffraction cross sections

Identifies limitations of previous single-channel models

Demonstrates the role of hadron structure in model accuracy

Abstract

In this paper we continue the development of a model for strong interactions at high energy, based on two ingredients: CGC/saturation approach and the BFKL Pomeron. In our approach, the unknown mechanism of confinement of quarks and gluons, is characterized by several numerical parameters, which are extracted from the experimental data. We demonstrate that the two channel model, successfully describes the experimental data, including both the value of the elastic slope and the energy behavior of the single diffraction cross section. We show that the disagreement with experimental data of our previous single channel eikonal model [6] stems from the simplified approach used for the hadron structure, and is not related to our principal theoretical input, based on the CGC/saturation approach.