The Pomeron as a Finite Sum of Gluon Ladder

TL;DR

This paper proposes a finite sum model of the Pomeron in QCD, where the number of gluon rungs increases with energy, and fits the resulting expressions to proton-proton and proton-antiproton scattering data.

Contribution

It introduces a novel finite sum of gluon ladder diagrams model for the Pomeron, linking the number of rungs to available phase space and energy.

Findings

Explicit expressions for total cross sections with two and three rungs fitted to data.

Model captures energy dependence of scattering amplitudes.

Fits proton-proton and proton-antiproton data effectively.

Abstract

A model for the Pomeron at t=0 is suggested. It is based on the idea of a finite sum of ladder diagrams in QCD. Accordingly, the number of s-channel gluon rungs and correspondingly the powers of logarithms in the forward scattering amplitude depends on the phase space (energy) available, i.e. as energy increases, progressively new prongs with additional gluon rungs in the s-channel open. Explicit expressions for the total cross section involving two and three rungs or, alternatively, three and four prongs (with $\ln^2(s)$ and $\ln^3(s)$ as highest terms) is fitted to the proton-proton and proton-antiproton total cross section data in the accelerator region.