Formation of color-singlet gluon-clusters and inelastic diffractive scattering

TL;DR

This paper proposes that self-organized criticality in soft gluon systems leads to the formation of color-singlet gluon-clusters, which can be experimentally studied through inelastic diffractive scattering, revealing universal power-law behaviors and specific cross-section dependencies.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of SOC in gluon systems and links it to observable phenomena in inelastic diffractive scattering, supported by data analysis and theoretical modeling.

Findings

Gluon-cluster size and lifetime distributions follow power-law behaviors.

Analytical formulas for scattering cross-sections match experimental data.

Space-time properties of gluon-clusters explain observed scattering patterns.

Abstract

This is the extensive follow-up report of a recent Letter in which the existence of self-organized criticality (SOC) in systems of interacting soft gluons is proposed, and its consequences for inelastic diffractive scattering processes are discussed. It is pointed out, that color-singlet gluon-clusters can be formed in hadrons as a consequence of SOC in systems of interacting soft gluons, and that the properties of such spatiotemporal complexities can be probed experimentally by examing inelastic diffractive scattering. Theoretical arguments and experimental evidences supporting the proposed picture are presented --- together with the result of a systematic analysis of the existing data for inelastic diffractive scattering processes performed at different incident energies, and/or by using different beam-particles. It is shown in particular that the size- and the lifetime-distributions of such gluon-clusters can be directly extracted from the data, and the obtained results exhibit universal power-law behaviors --- in accordance with the expected SOC-fingerprints. As further consequences of SOC in systems of interacting soft gluons, the $t$-dependence and the $(M_x^2/s)$-dependence of the double differential cross-sections for inelastic diffractive scattering off proton-target are discussed. Here $t$ stands for the four-momentum-transfer squared, $M_x$ for the missing mass, and $\sqrt{s}$ for the total c.m.s. energy. It is shown, that the space-time properties of the color-singlet gluon-clusters due to SOC, discussed above, lead to simple analytical formulae for $d^2\sigma/dt d(M_x^2/s)$ and for $d\sigma/dt$, and that the obtained results are in good agreement with the existing data. Further experiments are suggested.