Zooming-in on Instantons at HERA

Abstract

In view of the intriguing, preliminary search results for instanton-induced events at HERA from the H1 collaboration, some important remaining theoretical issues are discussed. Notably, the question is addressed, to which extent the H1 analysis may be directly compared to our original predictions from instanton-perturbation theory, since certain fiducial cuts are lacking in the H1 data. Various theoretical uncertainties are evaluated and their impact on the observed excess is discussed. An improved understanding of the experimental findings along with an encouraging over-all agreement with our original predictions seems to emerge.