Diffractive Photon Production in Gamma-P and Gamma-Gamma Interactions

Abstract

We study the diffractive production of photons in gamma-p and gamma-gamma collisions. We specifically compute the rates for gamma*-p -> gamma-X and for gamma*-gamma* -> gamma-gamma, where X denotes the proton dissociation. We focus on the rates at large momentum transfers, -t >> Lambda^2, where we are most confident in the use of QCD perturbation theory. However, our calculations do allow us to study the -t -> 0 behaviour of the gamma*-gamma*-> gamma-gamma process in the region where the incoming photons are sufficiently virtual.