Effective field theory factorization for diffraction
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13130_2025_Article_27687.pdf
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5.13 MB
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Author(s)
Lee, Kyle
Schindler, Stella T.
Stewart, Iain W.
Date Issued
November 25, 2025
Journal
Journal of High Energy Physics
Publisher
Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Citation
Lee, K., Schindler, S.T. & Stewart, I.W. Effective field theory factorization for diffraction. J. High Energ. Phys. 2025, 157 (2025).
Version
Final published version
Abstract
We derive a factorization formula for coherent and incoherent ep diffraction using the soft collinear effective theory, utilizing multiple power expansion parameters to handle different kinematic regions. This goes beyond the known hard-collinear diffractive factorization to address the small-x Regge dynamics and Pomeron exchange from first principles. The effective field theory analysis also uncovers and factorizes an important irreducible incoherent background generated by color-nonsinglet exchange, dubbed “quasi-diffraction”, for which we calculate the associated Sudakov suppression. For unpolarized scattering we show that there are four diffractive structure functions at leading power, and point out the importance of studying F 3 , 4 D through asymmetries, in addition to F 2 , L D . For the quasi-diffractive background, we make model independent predictions for ratios of the corresponding structure functions in a perturbative kinematic region. Our analysis also makes predictions for six leading-power spin-dependent structure functions. Finally, we provide connections to diffractive parton distributions, and assess the Ingelman-Schlein model. Our work lays a path for further QCD-based studies of diffraction.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Theoretical Physics
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP11(2025)157
