JIMWLK evolution of the odderon

Abstract

We study the effects of a parity-odd "odderon" correlation in JIMWLK renormalization group evolution at high energy. Firstly we show that in the eikonal picture where the scattering is described by Wilson lines, one obtains a strict mathematical upper limit for the magnitude of the odderon amplitude compared to the parity even pomeron one. This limit increases with N_c, approaching infinity in the infinite N_c limit. We use a systematic extension of the Gaussian approximation including both 2- and 3-point correlations which enables us to close the system of equations even at finite N_c. In the large-N_c limit we recover an evolution equation derived earlier. By solving this equation numerically we confirm that the odderon amplitude decreases faster in the nonlinear case than in the linear BFKL limit. We also point out that, in the 3-point truncation at finite N_c, the presence of an odderon component introduces azimuthal angular correlations ~ cos(n phi) at all n.