Exclusive vs. diffractive vector meson production in DIS at small x or off nuclei

Abstract

The diffractive production of vector mesons in deep inelastic scattering (DIS) is calculated in the McLerran-Venugopalan model. This is relevant when large parton densities are probed by the virtual photon, as is the case at small Bjorken x or in DIS off nuclei. We investigate differences between the exclusive production (when the target doesn't break up) which dominates at small momentum transfer squared |t|, and the diffractive production (when the target scatters inelastically) which dominates at large |t|.

5 pages, 1 figure, Proceedings of the XVIIth International Workshop on Deep Inelastic Scattering (DIS09), Madrid, Spain, April 26-30 2009