Measurement of the Q2 and energy dependence of diffractive interactions at HERA

TL;DR

This paper measures how the probability of diffractive interactions in ep collisions varies with Q^2 and energy at HERA, providing insights into the underlying quantum chromodynamics processes.

Contribution

It presents the first detailed measurement of the Q^2 and energy dependence of diffractive dissociation of virtual photons at HERA.

Findings

Diffractive cross sections depend on Q^2 and energy.

The data reveal the transition between soft and hard diffraction regimes.

Results are consistent with certain QCD models.

Abstract

Diffractive dissociation of virtual photons, gamma* p-->Xp, has been studied in ep interactions with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of approx. 10 pb^-1. The data cover photon virtualities 0.17 < Q^2< 0.70 GeV^2 and 3 < Q^2< 80 GeV^2 with 3<M_X<38 GeV, where M_X is the mass of the hadronic final state.