Abundant radiation of soft photons: a puzzle lasting four decades

Abstract

The observed enhancement of low-kT photons in comparison with incorrect calculations, should not be treated as a puzzle. The paper by Low considered a large rapidity gap process of diffractive excitation of a hadron, h -> h+\gamma, rather than multiple hadron production spanning all over the rapidity interval between colliding hadrons. The optical theorem connects these two processes, and what is inner bremsstrahlung, suppressed according to Low, corresponds to radiation from final state hadrons. Thus, the main result of the Low theorem, based on gauge invariance of the diffractive bremsstrahlung amplitude, supplemented with the optical theorem, contradicts the so-called bremsstrahlung model. The latter has been used for comparison with data, leading to the longstanding soft photon puzzle.