Diffractive scattering on the deuteron

Abstract

High-mass diffractive production of protons on the deuteron target is studied in the perturbative QCD in the BFKL approach. Leading order rearrangement contribution and the standard triple pomeron (the impulse approximation) are studied. In the perturbative limit $\alpha_s\to 0$ the rearrangement contribution dominates. Numerical estimates at realistic values of $\alpha_s$ and energies strongly depend on assumptions made about the behavior of the pomeron attached to the proton due to unitarization. They indicate that irrespective of these assumptions in the realistic situation the rearrangement and triple pomeron contributions turn out to be of comparable magnitude due to large dimensions of the deuteron.