Instanton-induced Effects in QCD High-Energy Scattering

Abstract

We evaluate a number of new instanton-induced phenomena in QCD, starting with static dipole-dipole potentials, and proceeding to quark-quark and dipole-dipole scattering at high energy. We use a non-perturbative formulation of the scattering amplitude in terms of a correlator of two Wilson-lines (quarks) or Wilson-loops (dipoles) and analyze the Euclidean amplitudes with both perturbative gluons and instantons. The results are analytically continued to Minkowski geometry, by interpreting the angle between the Wilson lines as rapidity. We discuss the relevance of our results for the phenomenology of near-forward hadronic processes at high energy, especially for processes with multiple color exchanges.