Color Transparency or the Standard Inelastic Shadowing?

Abstract

The standard first-order inelastic correction (IC) well known in the pre-QCD era, causes a rising $Q^2$-dependence of nuclear transparency in the quasielastic electron scattering, $A(e,e'p)A'$, at moderate $Q^2$, similar to what is supposed to be the onset of color transparency (CT). Although IC is a part of the whole pattern of CT, it contains no explicit QCD dynamics. Evaluation of this correction is based on experimental data on diffraction dissociation and is independent of whether CP phenomenon exists or not. The growth of nuclear transparency is numerically comparable with the expected signal of CT up to about $Q^2\approx 20\ GeV^2$. Analogous effect in $A(p,2p)A'$ reaction is estimated as well.