Parton-based Gribov–Regge theory

Abstract We present a new parton model approach for hadron–hadron interactions and, in particular, for the initial stage of nuclear collisions at very high energies (RHIC, LHC and beyond). The most important aspect of our approach is a self-consistent treatment, using the same formalism for calculating cross sections and particle production, based on an effective, QCD-inspired field theory, where many of the inconsistencies of presently used models will be avoided. In addition, we provide a unified treatment of soft and hard scattering, such that there is no fundamental cutoff parameter any more defining an artificial border between soft and hard scattering. Our approach cures some of the main deficiencies of two of the standard procedures currently used: the Gribov–Regge theory and the eikonalized parton model. There, cross section calculations and particle production cannot be treated in a consistent way using a common formalism. In particular, energy conservation is taken care of in case of particle production, but not concerning cross section calculations. In addition, hard contributions depend crucially on some cutoff, being divergent for the cutoff being zero. Finally, in case of several elementary scatterings, they are not treated on the same level: the first collision is always treated differently from the subsequent ones. All these problems are solved in our new approach. For testing purposes, we make very detailed studies of electron–positron annihilation and lepton–nucleon scattering before applying our approach to proton–proton and nucleus–nucleus collisions. In order to keep a clean picture, we do not consider secondary interactions. We provide a very transparent extrapolation of the physics of more elementary interactions towards nucleus–nucleus scattering, without considering any nuclear effects due to final state interactions. In this sense we consider our model a realistic and consistent approach to describe the initial stage of nuclear collisions.