Diffractive scattering

Abstract

We discuss basic concepts and properties of diffractive phenomena in soft hadron collisions and in deep-inelastic scattering at low Bjorken-x. The paper is not a review of the rapidly developing field but presents an attempt to show in simple terms the close inter-relationship between the dynamics of high-energy hadronic and deep-inelastic diffraction. Using the saturation model of Golec-Biernat and Wusthoff as an example, a simple explanation of geometrical scaling is presented. The relation between the QCD anomalous multiplicity dimension and the Pomeron intercept is discussed.

Comments: Expanded version of a talk presented at the Ringberg Workshop on ``New Trends in HERA Physics 2001''. 44 pages, 26 Postscript figures, uses citesort.sty, iopart.cls (included). References added