Parton picture of inelastic collisions at transplanckian energies

Abstract

We propose a parton model of inelastic collisions at transplanckian energies E >> G^{-1/2}, using the gravitons, whose transverse momenta are cut at the Planck scale, as partons. For this purpose we represent the gravitational shock-wave accompanying the fast particle in terms of such partons and take into account the higher order multiperipheral-like contributions. We argue that the internal part of this shock plane contains the ``black'' disk of radius R(E) ~ E^{1/2} filled by such hard partons with the Planck density. When two fast particles collide the hard graviton production comes from the region of intersection of their black disks. The corresponding value of inclusive cross-section at the given rapidity and the impact parameter is proportional to the area of this region. The final state with such hard gravitons is unstable relative to the long range gravitational repulsion, and this leads to the creation of the multiperipheral chain of black holes at later stages of the reaction. We discuss various details of this picture including higher order corrections and there connection to a purely classical approach; we also consider briefly possible changes when additional hidden dimensions are present.