In
physics
Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...
, the pomeron is a
Regge trajectory — a family of particles with increasing spin — postulated in 1961 to explain the slowly rising
cross section of
hadron
In particle physics, a hadron is a composite subatomic particle made of two or more quarks held together by the strong nuclear force. Pronounced , the name is derived . They are analogous to molecules, which are held together by the electri ...
ic collisions at high energies.
It is named after
Isaak Pomeranchuk.
Overview
While other trajectories lead to falling
cross sections, the pomeron can lead to logarithmically rising cross sections — which, experimentally, are approximately constant ones. The identification of the pomeron and the prediction of its properties was a major success of the
Regge theory of
strong interaction
In nuclear physics and particle physics, the strong interaction, also called the strong force or strong nuclear force, is one of the four known fundamental interaction, fundamental interactions. It confines Quark, quarks into proton, protons, n ...
phenomenology. In later years, a BFKL pomeron
was derived in further kinematic regimes from perturbative calculations in
QCD
In theoretical physics
Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain, and predict List of natural phenomena, natural phenomena. This is in ...
, but its relationship to the pomeron seen in soft high energy scattering is still not fully understood.
One consequence of the pomeron hypothesis is that the cross sections of proton–proton and proton–antiproton scattering should be equal at high enough energies. This was demonstrated by the Soviet physicist
Isaak Pomeranchuk by
analytic continuation
In complex analysis, a branch of mathematics, analytic continuation is a technique to extend the domain of definition of a given analytic function. Analytic continuation often succeeds in defining further values of a function, for example in a ne ...
assuming only that the cross sections do not fall. The pomeron itself was introduced by
Vladimir Gribov, and it incorporated this theorem into Regge theory.
Geoffrey Chew and
Steven Frautschi introduced the pomeron in the West. The modern interpretation of
Pomeranchuk's theorem is that the pomeron has no conserved charges—the particles on this trajectory have the
quantum number
In quantum physics and chemistry, quantum numbers are quantities that characterize the possible states of the system.
To fully specify the state of the electron in a hydrogen atom, four quantum numbers are needed. The traditional set of quantu ...
s of the
vacuum
A vacuum (: vacuums or vacua) is space devoid of matter. The word is derived from the Latin adjective (neuter ) meaning "vacant" or "void". An approximation to such vacuum is a region with a gaseous pressure much less than atmospheric pressur ...
.
The pomeron was well accepted in the 1960s despite the fact that the measured cross sections of proton–proton and proton–antiproton scattering at the energies then available were unequal.
The pomeron carries no charges. The absence of electric charge implies that pomeron exchange does not lead to the usual shower of
Cherenkov radiation
Cherenkov radiation () is electromagnetic radiation emitted when a charged particle (such as an electron) passes through a dielectric medium (such as distilled water) at a speed greater than the phase velocity (speed of propagation of a wavefro ...
, while the absence of
color charge
Color charge is a property of quarks and gluons that is related to the particles' strong interactions in the theory of quantum chromodynamics (QCD). Like electric charge, it determines how quarks and gluons interact through the strong force; ho ...
implies that such events do not radiate
pion
In particle physics, a pion (, ) or pi meson, denoted with the Greek alphabet, Greek letter pi (letter), pi (), is any of three subatomic particles: , , and . Each pion consists of a quark and an antiquark and is therefore a meson. Pions are the ...
s.
This is in accord with experimental observation. In high energy proton–proton and proton–antiproton collisions in which it is believed that pomerons have been exchanged, a rapidity gap is often observed: This is a large angular region in which no outgoing particles are detected.
Odderon
The odderon, the counterpart of the pomeron that carries odd
charge parity, was introduced in 1973 by Leszek Łukaszuk and
Basarab Nicolescu
Basarab Nicolescu (born March 25, 1942, Ploieşti, Romania) is an honorary theoretical physicist at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Laboratoire de Physique Nucléaire et de Hautes Énergies, Université Pierre et Marie ...
. Odderons exist in
QCD
In theoretical physics
Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain, and predict List of natural phenomena, natural phenomena. This is in ...
as a compound state of three
reggeized gluons.
Potentially theorized in 2015. It was potentially observed only in 2017 by the
TOTEM experiment at the
LHC
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator. It was built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) between 1998 and 2008, in collaboration with over 10,000 scientists, and ...
.
This observation was later confirmed in a joint analysis with the
DØ experiment at the
Tevatron
The Tevatron was a circular particle accelerator (active until 2011) in the United States, at the Fermilab, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (called ''Fermilab''), east of Batavia, Illinois, and was the highest energy particle collider unt ...
and appeared in the media as the particle's discovery in March 2021.
String theory
In early particle physics, the 'pomeron sector' was what is now called the '
closed string sector' while what was called the '
reggeon sector' is now the '
open string theory'.
See also
*
Giuseppe Cocconi
*
Tamás Csörgő
References
Further reading
*
*
External links
Pomerons at Fermilab*
{{Authority control
Subatomic particles
Quantum chromodynamics
Hadrons
Hypothetical particles