Diffraction on Nuclei: Effects of Nucleon Correlations

Understand

The cross sections for a variety of diffractive processes in proton-nucleus scattering, associated with large gaps in rapidity, are calculated within an improved Glauber-Gribov theory, where the inelastic shadowing corrections are summed to all orders by employing the dipole representation.

• The effects of nucleon correlations, leading to a modification of the nuclear thickness function, are also taken into account.
• Numerical calculations are performed for the energies of the HERA-B experiment, and the RHIC and LHC colliders, and for several nuclei.
• It is found that whereas the Gribov corrections generally make nuclear matter more transparent, nucleon correlations act in the opposite direction and have important effects in various diffractive processes.