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M. Strikman

Publications and source records attributed to M. Strikman.

At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources
arXiv2007

Quark helicity flip and the transverse spin dependence of inclusive DIS

Inclusive DIS with unpolarized beam exhibits a subtle dependence on the transverse target spin, arising from the interference of one-photon and two-photon exchange amplitudes in the cross section. We argue that this observable probes mainly the quark helicity-flip amplitudes induced by the non-perturbative vacuum structure of QCD (spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking). This conjecture is based on (a) the absence of significant Sudakov suppression of the helicity-flip process if soft gluon emission in the quark subprocess is limited by the chiral symmetry-breaking scale mu_chiral^2 >> Lambda_QCD^2; (b) the expectation that the quark helicity-conserving twist-3 contribution is small. The normal target spin asymmetry is estimated to be of the order 10^{-4} in the kinematics of the planned Jefferson Lab Hall A experiment.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2007

Transverse target spin asymmetry in inclusive DIS with two-photon exchange

We study the transverse target spin dependence of the cross section for inclusive electron-nucleon scattering with unpolarized beam. Such dependence is absent in the one-photon exchange approximation (Christ-Lee theorem) and arises only in higher orders of the QED expansion, from the interference of one-photon and absorptive two-photon exchange amplitudes as well as from real photon emission (bremsstrahlung). We demonstrate that the transverse spin-dependent two-photon exchange cross section is free of QED infrared and collinear divergences. We argue that in DIS kinematics the transverse spin dependence should be governed by a "parton-like" mechanism in which the two-photon exchange couples mainly to a single quark. We calculate the normal spin asymmetry in an approximation where the dominant contribution arises from quark helicity flip due to interactions with non-perturbative vacuum fields (constituent quark picture) and is proportional to the quark transversity distribution in the nucleon. Such helicity-flip processes are not significantly Sudakov-suppressed if the infrared scale for gluon emission in the photon-quark subprocess is of the order of the chiral symmetry breaking scale, mu_chiral^2 >> Lambda_QCD^2. We estimate the asymmetry in the kinematics of the planned Jefferson Lab Hall A experiment to be of the order 10^{-4}, with different sign for proton and neutron. We also comment on the spin dependence in the limit of soft high-energy scattering.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2007

Rapidity gap survival in the black-disk regime

We summarize how the approach to the black-disk regime (BDR) of strong interactions at TeV energies influences rapidity gap survival in exclusive hard diffraction pp -> p + H + p (H = dijet, Qbar-Q, Higgs). Employing a recently developed partonic description of such processes, we discuss (a) the suppression of diffraction at small impact parameters by soft spectator interactions in the BDR; (b) further suppression by inelastic interactions of hard spectator partons in the BDR; (c) correlations between hard and soft interactions. Hard spectator interactions substantially reduce the rapidity gap survival probability at LHC energies compared to previously reported estimates.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2007

The Physics of Ultraperipheral Collisions at the LHC

We discuss the physics of large impact parameter interactions at the LHC: ultraperipheral collisions (UPCs). The dominant processes in UPCs are photon-nucleon (nucleus) interactions. The current LHC detector configurations can explore small $x$ hard phenomena with nuclei and nucleons at photon-nucleon center-of-mass energies above 1 TeV, extending the $x$ range of HERA by a factor of ten. In particular, it will be possible to probe diffractive and inclusive parton densities in nuclei using several processes. The interaction of small dipoles with protons and nuclei can be investigated in elastic and quasi-elastic $J/ψ$ and $Υ$ production as well as in high $t$ $ρ^0$ production accompanied by a rapidity gap. Several of these phenomena provide clean signatures of the onset of the new high gluon density QCD regime. The LHC is in the kinematic range where nonlinear effects are several times larger than at HERA. Two-photon processes in UPCs are also studied. In addition, while UPCs play a role in limiting the maximum beam luminosity, they can also be used a luminosity monitor by measuring mutual electromagnetic dissociation of the beam nuclei. We also review similar studies at HERA and RHIC as well as describe the potential use of the LHC detectors for UPC measurements.

nucl-ex↗
arXiv2007

Photoproduction at collider energies: from RHIC and HERA to the LHC

We present the mini-proceedings of the workshop on ``Photoproduction at collider energies: from RHIC and HERA to the LHC'' held at the European Centre for Theoretical Studies in Nuclear Physics and Related Areas (ECT*, Trento) from January 15 to 19, 2007. The workshop gathered both theorists and experimentalists to discuss the current status of investigations of high-energy photon-induced processes at different colliders (HERA, RHIC, and Tevatron) as well as preparations for extension of these studies at the LHC. The main physics topics covered were: (i) small-$x$ QCD in photoproduction studies with protons and in electromagnetic (aka. ultraperipheral) nucleus-nucleus collisions, (ii) hard diffraction physics at hadron colliders, and (iii) photon-photon collisions at very high energies: electroweak and beyond the Standard Model processes. These mini-proceedings consist of an introduction and short summaries of the talks presented at the meeting.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2006

Leading twist nuclear shadowing and suppression of hard coherent diffraction in proton-nucleus scattering

We use the Glauber-Gribov multiple scattering formalism and the theory of leading twist nuclear shadowing to develop a method for the calculation of leading twist hard coherent diffraction in hadron-nucleus processes. We demonstrate that soft multiple rescatterings lead to the factorization breaking of hard diffraction in proton-nucleus scattering, which is larger than in hadron-nucleon scattering. At the LHC and RHIC kinematics, we compare the hard diffractive to e.m.~mechanisms of hard coherent production of two jets in proton-nucleus scattering. We study the x_{\Pomeron}, βand A-dependence of the ratio of the dijet production cross sections due to the two effects, R. We demonstrate that in proton-heavy nucleus hard coherent diffraction at the LHC, R is small, which offers a clean method to study hard photon-proton scattering at the energies exceeding the HERA energies by the factor of ten. On the other hand, the use of lighter nuclei, such as Ca-40, will allow to study the screened nuclear diffractive parton distribution. Moreover, a comparison of the dijet diffractive production to the heavy-quark-jet diffractive production will estimate the screened nuclear diffractive gluon PDF, which will be measured in nucleus-nucleus ultraperipheral collisions at the LHC.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2006

Large t diffractive rho-meson photoproduction with target dissociation in ultraperipheral pA and AA collisions at LHC

We demonstrate that study of large t vector meson photoproduction with rapidity gaps in ultraperipheral proton-ion and ion-ion collisions at LHC would allow to investigate the energy dependence of cross section of elastic scattering of a small dipole off the parton over a wide range of energies $10^3 < s_{dipole - parton} < 10^6 GeV^2$ where this cross section is expected to change by a factor $\ge 20$. The accessible energy range exceeds the one reached at HERA by a factor of 10 both in $γp$ and in $γA$ scattering. In addition, study of A-dependence of this process will allow to determine the t range where interaction of small dipoles gives the dominant contribution and to investigate effects of absorption for the propagation of ultrarelativistic small $q\bar q$ dipoles through the nuclear media and probe in a novel way onset of the black disk regime.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2006

Evidence for the Strong Dominance of Proton-Neutron Correlations in Nuclei

We analyze recent data from high-momentum-transfer $(p,pp)$ and $(p,ppn)$ reactions on Carbon. For this analysis, the two-nucleon short-range correlation (NN-SRC) model for backward nucleon emission is extended to include the motion of the NN-pair in the mean field. The model is found to describe major characteristics of the data. Our analysis demonstrates that the removal of a proton from the nucleus with initial momentum 275-550 MeV/c is $92^{+8}_{-18}%$ of the time accompanied by the emission of a correlated neutron that carries momentum roughly equal and opposite to the initial proton momentum. Within the NN-SRC dominance assumption the data indicate that the probabilities of $pp$ or $nn$ SRCs in the nucleus are at least a factor of six smaller than that of $pn$ SRCs. Our result is the first estimate of the isospin structure of NN-SRCs in nuclei, and may have important implication for modeling the equation of state of asymmetric nuclear matter.

nucl-th↗
arXiv2006

Transverse imaging of the proton in exclusive diffractive pp scattering

In a recent paper (hep-ph/0608271) we describe a new approach to rapidity gap survival (RGS) in the production of high-mass systems (H = dijet, Higgs, etc.) in exclusive double-gap diffractive pp scattering, pp -> p + H + p. It is based on the idea that hard and soft interactions are approximately independent (QCD factorization), and allows us to calculate the RGS probability in a model-independent way in terms of the gluon generalized parton distributions (GPDs) in the colliding protons and the pp elastic scattering amplitude. Here we focus on the transverse momentum dependence of the cross section. By measuring the "diffraction pattern," one can perform detailed tests of the interplay of hard and soft interactions, and even extract information about the gluon GPD in the proton from the data.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2006

Generalized parton distributions and rapidity gap survival in exclusive diffractive pp scattering

We propose a new approach to the problem of rapidity gap survival (RGS) in the production of high-mass systems (H = dijet, heavy quarkonium, Higgs boson) in double-gap exclusive diffractive pp scattering, pp -> p + (gap) + H + (gap) + p. It is based on the idea that hard and soft interactions proceed over widely different time- and distance scales and are thus approximately independent. The high-mass system is produced in a hard scattering process with exchange of two gluons between the protons. Its amplitude is calculable in terms of the gluon generalized parton distributions (GPDs) in the protons, which can be measured in J/psi production in exclusive ep scattering. The hard scattering process is modified by soft spectator interactions, which we calculate in a model-independent way in terms of the pp elastic scattering amplitude. Contributions from inelastic intermediate states are suppressed. A simple geometric picture of the interplay of hard and soft interactions in diffraction is obtained. The onset of the black-disk limit in pp scattering at TeV energies strongly suppresses diffraction at small impact parameters and is the main factor in determining the RGS probability. Correlations between hard and soft interactions (e.g. due to scattering from the long-range pion field of the proton, or due to possible short-range transverse correlations between partons) further decrease the RGS probability. We also investigate the dependence of the diffractive cross section on the transverse momenta of the final-state protons ("diffraction pattern"). By measuring this dependence one can perform detailed tests of the interplay of hard and soft interactions, and even extract information about the gluon GPD in the proton. Such studies appear to be feasible with the planned forward detectors at the LHC.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2006

Elastic and large t rapidity gap vector meson production in ultraperipheral proton-ion collisions

We evaluate the cross sections for the production of vector mesons in exclusive ultraperipheral proton-ion collisions at LHC. We find that the rates are high enough to study the energy and momentum transfer dependence of vector mesons - rho,phi, J/psi, Upsilon photoproduction in gamma p scattering in a wide energy range extending the measurements which were performed at HERA, providing new information about interplay of soft and hard physics in diffraction. Also, we calculate the contributions to the vector meson yield due to production of vector mesons off nuclear target by photons emitted by proton. We find, that least in the case of Upsilon production it is feasible to observe simultaneously both these processes. Such measurements would increase the precision with which the A-dependence of exclusive onium production can be determined. This would also enable one to estimate the amount of nuclear gluon shadowing of generalized gluon distributions at much smaller x than that is possible in AA collisions and to measure the cross sections for photoproduction processes in a significantly wider energy range than that achieved in experiments with fixed nuclear targets. We also present the cross section for vector meson production in pA collisions at RHIC. In addition, we consider production of vector mesons off protons with large rapidity gaps and large t. These processes probe small x dynamics of the elastic interaction of small dipoles at high energies and large but finite t, that is in the kinematics where DGLAP evolution is strongly suppressed. We estimate that this process could be studied at LHC up to W ~1 TeV with detectors which will be available at LHC.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2006

Pionic Color Transparency

We use a semi-classical approximation to investigate the effects of color transparency on pion electroproduction reactions. The resulting reduced nuclear interactions produce significant, but not dominating, differences with the results of conventional distorted-wave, Glauber-type treatments at kinematics accessible to Jefferson Laboratory. Nuclear effects that could mimic the influence of color transparency are also discussed.

nucl-th↗
arXiv2006

The black-disk limit in high-energy ep and pp scattering

We review a recently proposed framework for studying the approach to the unitarity limit in small-x processes in ep and pp scattering within the DGLAP approximation. Our formulation is based on the correspondence between the standard QCD factorization theorems for hard processes and the dipole picture of small-x scattering in the leading logarithmic approximation. It allows us to incorporate information about the transverse spatial distribution of gluons in the proton (GPD) from exclusive vector meson production at HERA. We show that the interaction of small-size color singlet configurations with the proton approaches the "black-disk limit" (BDL) due to the growth of the DGLAP gluon density at small x. This new dynamical regime is marginally visible in diffractive DIS at HERA, and will be fully reached in central pp collisions at LHC.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2006

Nuclear shadowing in inclusive and tagged deuteron structure functions and extraction of F_2^p-F_2^n at small x from electron-deuteron collider data

We review predictions of the theory of leading twist nuclear shadowing for inclusive unpolarized and polarized deuteron structure functions F_2^D, g_1^D and b_1^D and for the tagged deuteron structure function F_2^D(x,Q^2,\vec{p}). We analyze the possibility to extract the neutron structure function F_2^n from electron-deuteron data and demonstrate that an account of leading twist nuclear shadowing leads to large corrections for the extraction of F_2^n from the future deuteron collider data both in the inclusive and in the tagged structure function modes. We suggest several strategies to address the extraction of F_2^n and to measure at the same time the effect of nuclear shadowing via the measurement of the distortion of the proton spectator spectrum in the semi-inclusive e D \to e^{\prime}NX process. We address the issue of the final state interactions in the e D \to e^{\prime}NX process and examine how they affect the extraction of F_2^n.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2005

Small-x Physics: From HERA to LHC and beyond

We summarize the lessons learned from studies of hard scattering processes in high-energy electron-proton collisions at HERA and antiproton-proton collisions at the Tevatron, with the aim of predicting new strong interaction phenomena observable in next-generation experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Processes reviewed include inclusive deep-inelastic scattering (DIS) at small x, exclusive and diffractive processes in DIS and hadron-hadron scattering, as well as color transparency and nuclear shadowing effects. A unified treatment of these processes is outlined, based on factorization theorems of quantum chromodynamics, and using the correspondence between the "parton" picture in the infinite-momentum frame and the "dipole" picture of high-energy processes in the target rest frame. The crucial role of the three-dimensional quark and gluon structure of the nucleon is emphasized. A new dynamical effect predicted at high energies is the unitarity, or black disk, limit (BDL) in the interaction of small dipoles with hadronic matter, due to the increase of the gluon density at small x. This effect is marginally visible in diffractive DIS at HERA and will lead to the complete disappearance of Bjorken scaling at higher energies. In hadron-hadron scattering at LHC energies and beyond (cosmic ray physics), the BDL will be a standard feature of the dynamics, with implications for (a) hadron production at forward and central rapidities in central proton-proton and proton-nucleus collisions, in particular events with heavy particle production (Higgs), (b) proton-proton elastic scattering, (c) heavy-ion collisions. We also outline the possibilities for studies of diffractive processes and photon-induced reactions (ultraperipheral collisions) at LHC, as well as possible measurements with a future electron-ion collider.

hep-ph↗
arXiv2005

Charm production in antiproton-nucleus collisions at the $J/ψ$ and the $ψ'$ thresholds

We discuss the production of charmonium states in antiproton-nucleus collisions at the $ψ'$ threshold. It is explained that measurements in $\bar p A$ collisions will allow to get new information about the strengths of the inelastic $J/ψN, ψ'N$ interaction, on the production of $Λ_c$ and $\bar{D}$ in charmonium-nucleon interactions and for the first time about nondiagonal transitions $ψ' N\to J/ψN$. The inelastic $J/ψ$-nucleon cross section is extracted from the comparison of hadron-nucleus collisions with hadron-nucleon collisions. We extract the total $J/ψ$ nucleon cross section from photon-nucleon collisions by accounting for the color transparency phenomenon within the frame of the GVDM (Generalized Vector meson Dominance Model). We evaluate also within the GVDM the inelastic $ψ'$-nucleon cross section as well as the cross section for the nondiagonal transitions. Predictions for the ratio of $J/ψ$ to $ψ'$ yields in antiproton-nucleus scatterings close to the threshold of $ψ'$ production for different nuclear targets are presented.

nucl-th↗
arXiv2005

Neutron tagging of quasielastic J/psi photoproduction off nucleus in ultraperipheral heavy ion collisions at RHIC energies

We compare the coherent and quasielastic J/psi photoproduction in the peripheral heavy ion collisions in kinematics of RHIC. Our improved estimate of the total coherent cross section is a factor of two smaller than the earlier ones. We find that the counting rate of quasielastic J/psi photoproduction tagged by neutrons emitted due to cascading of the recoiled nucleon within the residual nucleus exceeds the rate of the coherent events. We argue that measurements of this process can be used to learn about the dynamics of color dipole-nucleon interactions in nuclei in the wide effective range of energies of gamma A interactions.

hep-ph↗