The Hard Scale from the Forward Peak in Diffractive Leptoproduction of Vector Mesons

Abstract

The measured forward slope in elastic and inelastic leptoproduction of vector mesons differ by a substantial amount.To investigate this phemomenon we construct a two radii model for the target proton, and estimate the effective parameters of the “hard” Pomeron obtained from a pQCD dipole model with eikonal shadowing corrections (SC). The SC reduce the intercept of the “hard” Pomeron, and generate an effective shrinkage of the forward peak. A diffractive dip, similar to that seen in pp and $q\bar q$ is predicted to occur at t ≈ 1 Gev ², which effects the behaviour of the forward peak.