Diffractive structure function in the dipole picture

TL;DR

This paper calculates the $q\bar{q}g$ component contribution to small-$x$ diffractive cross sections in deep inelastic scattering, advancing understanding of saturation effects and next-to-leading order corrections in the dipole picture.

Contribution

It provides a finite calculation of the $q\bar{q}g$ component in the dipole model at small-$x$, including exact kinematics and insights into next-to-leading order corrections.

Findings

Finite $q\bar{q}g$ contribution calculated

Extraction of high $Q^2$ and $M_X^2$ structure functions

Discussion on steps for full NLO result

Abstract

We calculate the contribution from the $q\bar{q}g$ component of a virtual photon state to the small-$x$ diffractive cross section in deep inelastic scattering in the saturation regime. The obtained cross section is finite by itself and a part of the full next-to-leading order result. We perform the calculation in exact kinematics in the eikonal limit, and show that the previously known high virtuality $Q^2$ and large invariant mass $M_X^2$ results for the structure functions can be extracted. We furthermore discuss the steps required to obtain the full next-to-leading order result.