Diffractive Structure Function in a Quasi-Classical Approximation

Abstract

We derive an expression for diffractive F_2 structure function which should be valid at small x for quasi-elastic scattering on a hadron and for quasi-elastic scattering on a large nucleus. This expression includes multiple rescatterings of the quark-antiquark pair produced by the virtual photon off the sources of color charge in a quasi-classical approximation. We find that there is a relation between such diffractive production and inclusive processes. In the former, one averages over all colors of sources before squaring the amplitude, and in the latter one first squares the amplitude and then averages it in the hadron's or nuclear wave function. We show that in the limit of a large virtuality of the photon Q^2 the diffractive structure function becomes linearly proportional to the gluon distribution of the hadron or nucleus, therefore proving that in this sense diffraction is a leading twist effect.