https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s2004-01609-8
experimental physics
A new 
factorization test in diffraction, valid below 
GeV2
University of California, 90095, Los Angeles, California, USA
One of the key experimental issues in high energy hadron physics is the extent to which data from the diffractive interaction mechanism may be described by a factorized formula which is the product of a universal term describing the probability of finding a 
omeron in a proton (loosely referred to as the “omeron flux-factor”) and a term describing the omeron’s interaction with the other incident proton. In the present paper, after demonstrating that existing data on diffractive 
and 
interactions show that the omeron flux-factor is not universal, we present the results of a new test of factorization in these interactions which does not rely on universality of the flux-factor. The test is satisfied to within 
for 1 < Q
2 < 6 GeV2 and 
in the interactions, suggesting that the reasons for non-universality of the flux-factor have a limited effect on the factorization itself. However, a clear breakdown of this test is observed at larger Q
2 . Kharzeev and Levin suggest that this can be attributed to the onset of QCD evolution effects in the omeron’s structure. The breakdown occurs in a Q
2 region which agrees with their estimates of a small omeron size.
© Springer-Verlag, 2004
