Pomeronlike

The term "pomeronlike" refers to phenomena or particles in high-energy particle physics that exhibit characteristics analogous to those of the pomeron, a hypothetical particle or quantum object proposed to explain certain features of strong interaction cross-sections in quantum chromodynamics (QCD). The pomeron was first introduced by physicist Geoffrey Chew in the 1960s as part of the S-matrix theory to describe the rise of total cross-sections with energy in hadronic collisions, particularly in proton-proton scattering at high energies.

The pomeron is not a fundamental particle but rather a composite object, often interpreted as a superposition of gluon exchanges in perturbative QCD. Its "pomeronlike" behavior is associated with soft, color-neutral exchanges that dominate at low momentum transfers and high energies. These exchanges contribute to phenomena such as elastic scattering, diffractive dissociation, and central production in hadron-hadron collisions.

In modern QCD, pomeronlike behavior is often modeled using effective field theories or reggeized gluons, which describe the leading singularities in the complex angular momentum plane. Pomeronlike exchanges are also observed in diffractive deep inelastic scattering (DIS) experiments, where they manifest as rapidity gaps or color-singlet states in the final state. These processes are studied at facilities like the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) to probe the non-perturbative structure of the proton and other hadrons.

While the pomeron itself remains an abstract construct, pomeronlike dynamics play a crucial role in understanding the long-range interactions in QCD and the structure of the vacuum. Research in this area continues to refine our understanding of confinement, gluon saturation, and the transition from soft to hard QCD regimes.