Diffractive DIS Cross Sections and Parton Distributions

TL;DR

This paper presents recent measurements of diffractive Deep Inelastic Scattering cross sections at HERA, analyzing the data through different event selection methods and extracting diffractive parton distributions using NLO QCD, with implications for predictions at colliders.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed comparison of two measurement techniques and derives diffractive parton distributions from NLO QCD analysis, enhancing predictive capabilities for diffractive processes.

Findings

Consistent results between proton tagging and rapidity gap methods.

Extraction of diffractive parton distributions using NLO QCD.

Application of distributions to predictions at TEVATRON and LHC.

Abstract

Highlights are presented mainly from two recent measurements of the diffractive Deep Inelastic Scattering cross section at HERA. In the first, the process $ep\to eXp$ is studied by tagging the leading final state proton. In the second, events of this type are selected by requiring a large rapidity gap devoid of hadronic activity in the proton direction. The two measurements are compared in detail and the kinematic dependences are interpreted within the framework of a factorisable diffractive exchange. Diffractive parton distributions are determined from a next-to-leading order QCD analysis of the large rapidity gap data, which can be applied to the prediction of diffractive processes, also at the TEVATRON and the LHC.