THE TRIPLE REGGE LIMIT OF DIFFRACTIVE DISSOCIATION IN DEEP-INELASTIC SCATTERING

We derive, within perturbative QCD, a formula for the inclusive cross section of the diffractive dissociation of the deep inelastic photon gamma* + q --> X + q in the triple Regge limit s very-much-greater-than M2 very-much-greater-than Q2 very-much-greater-than LAMBDA2. We use the leading ln(s/M2), ln(M2/Q2) approximation and derive an expression for the triple Pomeron vertex. The Pomeron above this vertex is found to be of higher order than the BFKL Pomeron. The resulting formula for the cross section is infrared finite. We show that the Abramovsky-Gribov-Kanchelli cutting rules are satisfied, and we discuss implications for the Pomeron structure function.