We argue that the pattern of the deviation from the Glauber approximation prediction for the centrality dependence of the rate of forward jet production observed in pA collisions at the LHC provides the first experimental evidence that parton configu
rations in the projectile proton containing a parton with large $x$ interact with a nuclear target with a significantly smaller than average cross section and have smaller than average size. We implement the effects of fluctuations of the interaction strength and, using the ATLAS analysis of how hadron production at backward rapidities depends on the number of wounded nucleons, make quantitative predictions for the centrality dependence of the jet production rate as a function of the $x$-dependent interaction strength $sigma(x)$. We find that sigma(x)sim 0.6 ~sigma_{tot}(pp) gives a good description of the x=0.6 data and may shed a light on the origin of the EMC effect.
We analyze $pA$ interactions at ultra-high energies within the semiclassical approximation for high energy processes accounting for the diffractive processes and a rapid increase with the incident energy of the coherence length. The fluctuations of t
he strength of interaction expected in QCD and momentum conservation are taken into account also. We evaluate the number of wounded nucleons in soft and hard processes, the multiplicity of jets in the proton fragmentation region as a function of the variance of the distribution over the interaction strengths directly measured in forward diffractive $pN$ scattering for RHIC and LHC energies. We argue that these results could be used to test whether parton configurations containing a parton carrying the $xge 0.5$ fraction of the projectile momentum interact significantly weaker than on average. We also study leading twist shadowing and the EMC effect for superdense nuclear matter configurations probed in the events with larger than average number of wounded nucleons.
We review the evolution of the studies of diffractive processes in the strong interaction over the last 60 years. First, we briefly outline the early developments of the theory based on analyticity and unitarity of the S-matrix, including the derivat
ion and exploration of the Regge trajectories and related moving cuts. Special attention is paid to the concept of the Pomeron trajectory introduced for description of total, elastic and diffractive cross sections at high energies and to the emergence of the dynamics of multi-Pomeron interactions.The role of large longitudinal distances and color coherent phenomena for the understanding of inelastic diffraction in hadron-hadron scattering and deep inelastic scattering is emphasized. The connection of these phenomena to the cancellation of the contribution of the Glauber approximation in hadron-nucleus collisions and to the understanding of the Gribov-Glauber approximation is explained. The presence of different scales in perturbative QCD due to masses of heavy quarks has led to the emergence of numerous new phenomena including non-universality of the slopes of Regge trajectories made of light and heavy quarks and non-universal energy dependence of elastic cross sections. The application of the perturbative QCD techniques allowed us to calculate from the first principles the interaction of small transverse size color singlets with hadrons leading to the development of the quantitative theory of hard exclusive reactions and to the successful prediction of many regularities in hard large mass diffraction. It also led to the prediction of the phenomenon of complete transparency of nuclear matter in QCD in special processes. The conflict of perturbative QCD with probability conservation for high energy processes of virtual photon-nucleon scattering is explained. Some properties of the new QCD regime are outlined.
Applying exact QCD sum rules for the baryon charge and energy-momentum we demonstrate that if nucleons are the only degrees of freedom of nuclear wave function, the structure function of a nucleus would be the additive sum of the nucleon distribution
s at the same Bjorken x = AQ^2/2(p_Aq)< 0.5 up to very small Fermi motion corrections if x>0.05. Thus the difference of the EMC ratio from one reveals the presence of non-nucleonic degrees of freedom in nuclei. Using exact QCD sum rules we show that the ratio R_A(x_p,Q^2) used in experimental studies, where x_p = Q^2/2q_0 m_p deviates from one even if a nucleus consists of nucleons with small momenta only. Use of the Bjorken x leads to additional decrease of R_A(x,Q^2) as compared to the x_p plots. Coherent contribution of equivalent photons into photon component of parton wave function of a nucleus unambiguously follows from Lorentz transformation of the rest frame nucleus Coulomb field. For A~200 photons carry ~0.0065 fraction of the light momentum of nucleus almost compensates the difference between data analysis in terms of Bjorken x and x_p. Different role of higher twist effects for Q^2 probed at electron and muon beams is emphasized. Direct observations of large and predominantly nucleonic short-range correlations in nuclei pose a serious challenge for most of the models of the EMC effect for x>0.6. The data are consistent with a scenario in which the hadronic EMC effect reflects fluctuations of inter nucleon interaction due to fluctuations of color distribution in the interacting nucleons. The dynamic realization of this scenario is the model in which the 3q (3qg) configurations with x > 0.5 parton have a weaker interaction with nearby nucleons, leading to suppression of such configurations giving a right magnitude of the EMC effect. The directions for the future studies and challenging questions are outlined.
The transverse structure of the nucleon as probed in hard exclusive processes plays critical role in the understanding of the structure of the underlying event in hard collisions at the LHC, and multiparton interactions. We summarize results of our r
ecent studies of manifestation of transverse nucleon structure in the hard collisions at the LHC, new generalized parton distributions involved in multiparton interactions, presence of parton fluctuations. The kinematic range where interaction of fast partons of the projectile with the target reach black disk regime (BDR) strength is estimated. We demonstrate that in the BDR postselection effect leads to effective fractional energy losses. This effect explains regularities of the single and double forward pion production in $ dAu$ collisions at RHIC and impacts on the forward physics in $pp$ collisions at the LHC.
The recent x>1 (e,e) and correlation experiments at momentum transfer Q^2 ge 2 GeV^2 confirm presence of short-range correlations (SRC) in nuclei mostly build of nucleons. Recently we evaluated in a model independent way the dominant photon contrib
ution to the nuclear structure. Taking into account this effect and using definition of x consistent with the exact kinematics of eA scattering (with exact sum rules) results in the significant reduction of R_A(x,Q^2)=F_{2A}(x,Q^2)/F_{2N}(x,Q^2) ratio which explains sim 50% of the EMC effect for xle 0.55 where Fermi motion effects are small. The remaining part of the EMC effect at $xge 0.5$ is consistent with dominance of the contribution of SRCs. Implications for extraction of the F_{2n}/F_{2p} ratio are discussed. Smallness of the non-nucleonic degrees of freedom in nuclei matches well the recent observation of a two-solar mass neutron star, and while large pn SRCs lead to enhancement of the neutron star cooling rate for kTle 0.01 MeV.
We analyze the structure of the high multiplicity events observed by the CMS collaboration at the LHC. We argue that the bulk of the observed correlations is due to the production of a pair of jets with p_t > 15 GeV/c. We also suggest that high multi
plicity events are due to a combination of three effects: high underlying multiplicity for collisions at small impact parameters, upward fluctuations of the gluon density in the colliding protons, and production of hadrons in the fragmentation of dijets. The data analysis is suggested which may clarify the underlying dynamics of the high multiplicity events and probe fluctuations of the gluon field as a function of x.
We review theory of the leading twist nuclear shadowing, and describe phenomenon of post-selection suppression of leading parton spectrum (effective fractional energy losses) in the proximity of the black disk regime. We argue that $2 to 2$ mechanism
dominates in the inclusive leading pion production in d-Au collisions and explain that the post-selection naturally explains both the magnitude of the suppression of the forward pion production in d-Au collisions and the pattern of the forward - central correlations. At the same time this pattern of correlations rules out $2to 1$ mechanism as the main source of the inclusive leading pion yield. It is demonstrated that the mechanism of the double parton interactions gives an important contribution to the production of two leading pions in $pp$ scattering opening a new way to study correlations of leading quarks in the nucleon. The same mechanism is enhanced in $dAu to pi^0pi^0 +X$ collisions and explains the dominance of $Deltaphi$ independent component and suppression of the away side peak.
Photons as well as quarks and gluons are constituents of the infinite momentum frame (IMF) wave function of an energetic particle. They are mostly equivalent photons whose amplitude follows from the Lorentz transformation of the particle rest frame C
oulomb field into the IMF and from the conservation of the electromagnetic current. We evaluate in a model independent way the dominant photon contribution propto alpha_{em}(Z^2/A^{4/3})ln(1/R_{A}m_{N}x) to the nuclear structure functions as well as the term propto alpha_{em}Z/A. In addition we show that the definition of x consistent with the exact kinematics of eA scattering (with exact sum rules) works in the same direction as the nucleus field of equivalent photons. Combined, these effects account for the bulk of the EMC effect for xle 0.5 where Fermi motion effects are small. In particular for these x the hadronic mechanism contribution to the EMC effect does not exceed sim 3% for all nuclei. Also the A-dependence of the hadronic mechanism of the EMC effect for x > 0.5 is significantly modified.
We demonstrate that in the back-to-back kinematics the production of four jets in the collision of two partons is suppressed in the leading log approximation of pQCD, compared to the hard processes involving the collision of four partons. We derive t
he basic equation for four-jet production in QCD in terms of the convolution of generalized two-parton distributions of colliding hadrons in the momentum space representation. Our derivation leads to geometrical approach in the impact parameter space close to that suggested within the parton model and used before to describe the four-jet production. We develop the independent parton approximation to the light-cone wave function of the proton. Comparison with the CDF and D0 data shows that the independent parton approximation to the light-cone wave function of the proton is insufficient to explain the data. We argue that the data indicate the presence of significant multiparton correlations in the light-cone wave functions of colliding protons.
