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# REGGE POLES IN QCD

## 1 Introduction

Regge poles have been introduced in particle physics in the beginning of 60-ies $`^{\mathrm{?},\mathrm{?}}`$ and up to present time are widely used for description of high-energy interactions of hadrons and nuclei. Regge approach establishes an important connection between high energy scattering and spectrum of particles and resonances. It served as a basis for introduction of dual and string models of hadrons. A derivation of Regge poles in QCD is a difficult problem closely related to the nonperturbative effects in QCD and the problem of confinement. In this review I shall first remind the main properties of Regge poles. In the section 3 I shall address the problem of Regge poles in QCD using the 1/N - expansion. It will be shown now to relate QCD diagrams to reggeon theory based on analyticity and unitarity. First attempts to calculate Regge trajectories in QCD, using the nonperturbative method of Wilson-loop path integral will be reviewed. A special attention will be devoted to the problem of the Pomeron - a Regge pole which determines an asymptotic behavior of high-energy diffractive processes. This problem is closely connected to a calculation of spectra of glueballs in QCD. An analytic formula for masses of glueballs will be obtained and compared to the results of recent lattice calculations. It will be shown that mixing of gluonic and light $`q\overline{q}`$-states is important for the Pomeron trajectory in the small t region. A role of small distance dynamics and results of recent perturbative calculations of the Pomeron will be discussed briefly. In the Section 5 the properties of Regge cuts will be discussed and it will be shown that these singularities play an important role at high energies. The last section will be devoted to the physics of low-x deep inelastic scattering. This interesting kinematical region has been recently studied experimentally at HERA accelerator. It will be shown how the reggeon theory and QCD evolution effects allow to understand the properties of the structure function of the proton and diffractive dissociation of a virtual photon in a broad region of virtualities $`Q^2`$.

## 2 Regge poles and their properties

### 2.1 The reggeon concept

The complex angular momentum method was first introduced by Regge in nonrelativistic quantum mechanics.$`^\mathrm{?}`$ In relativistic theory it connects a high energy behavior of scattering amplitudes with the singularities in the complex angular momentum plane of the partial wave amplitudes in the crossed (t) channel. This method is based on the general properties of the S-matrix - unitarity, analyticity and crossing. The simplest singularities are poles (Regge poles). A Regge-pole exchange is a natural generalization of a usual exchange of a particle with spin $`J`$ to complex values of $`J`$. So this method established an important connection between high energy scattering and the spectrum of hadrons. This is a t-channel point of view on Regge poles. On the other hand asymptotic behavior of scattering amplitudes at very high energies is closely related to the multiparticle production. This is the s-channel point of view on reggeons.
Let us consider first the t-channel point of view in more details.
The binary reaction $`1+23+4`$ (Fig.1) is described by the amplitude $`T(s,t)`$, which depends on invariants $`s=(p_1+p_2)^2`$ and $`t=(p_1p_3)^2`$. At high energies $`sm^2`$ and fixed momentum transfer $`tm^2`$ an exchange by a particle of spin $`J`$ in the t-channel (Fig.2a)) leads to an amplitude of the form

$$T(s,t)=g_{13}g_{24}(s)^J/(M_J^2t)$$
(1)
where $`g_{ik}`$ are the coupling constants and $`M_J`$ is the mass of the exchanged particle.

For a partial wave expansion of amplitudes

$$f(s,cos\theta )=\frac{T(s,t)}{8\pi \sqrt{s}}=\frac{1}{p}\underset{l=0}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}(2l+1)f_l(s)P_l(cos\theta )$$
(2)
the unitarity relation leads to the constraints

$$\mathrm{}f_l(s)f_l(s)^2;f_l(s)1$$
(3)
It follows from eq.(1) that for an exchange of a particle with a spin $`J2`$ the partial wave amplitude increases with energy $`s^{(J1)}`$ for large $`s`$ and violates unitarity as $`s\mathrm{}`$.

This problem can be solved by introduction of Regge poles. It should be taken into account that the expression (1) for the amplitude is valid, strictly speaking, only close to the pole position $`tM_J^2`$ and can be strongly modified away from the pole. Regge pole model gives an exact form of this modification and absorbs in itself exchanges by states of different spins (Fig2b)). The corresponding amplitude has the form

$$T(s,t)=f_{13}(t)f_{24}(t)(s)^{\alpha (t)}\eta (\alpha (t))$$
(4)
where $`\alpha (t)`$ is the Regge-trajectory, which is equal to spin $`J`$ of the corresponding particle at $`t=M^2`$. The function $`\eta (\alpha (t))=(1+\sigma exp(i\pi \alpha (t))/\mathrm{sin}(\pi \alpha (t))`$ is a signature factor and $`\sigma =\pm 1`$ is a signature. It appears due to the fact that in relativistic theory it is necessary to consider separately analytic continuation of partial wave amplitudes in the t-channel to complex values of angular momenta $`J`$ from even $`(\sigma =+)`$ and odd $`(\sigma =)`$ values of $`J.`$ This factor is closely related to the crossing properties of scattering amplitudes under interchange of $`s`$ to $`u=(p_1p_4)^2`$. Amplitudes with $`\sigma =+`$ are even under the interchange $`su(ss`$ for high energies), while for $`\sigma =`$ amplitudes are antisymmetric under this operation. It should be emphasized that the single Regge exchange corresponds to an exchange of particles or resonances which are ”situated” on the trajectory $`\alpha (t).`$ For example if $`\alpha (t)=J,`$ where $`J`$ is an even (odd) integer for $`\sigma =+()`$ for $`t=M_J^2`$ and $`M_J^2`$ is less than the threshold for transition to several hadrons ($`4m_\pi ^2`$ for particles which can decay into two pions), then the Regge amplitude eq.(4) transforms into the particle exchange amplitude eq.(1) with $`g_{13}g_{24}=f_{13}(M_J^2)f_{24}(M_J^2)2/\pi \alpha ^{}(M_J^2).`$

If $`M_J`$ is larger than the threshold value then $`\alpha (t)`$ is a complex function and can be written for $`tM_J^2`$ in the form

$$\alpha (t)=J+\alpha ^{}(M_J^2)(tM_J^2)+iIm\alpha (M_J^2)$$
(5)
In this case for $`Im\alpha (M_J^2)1`$ Regge pole amplitude eq.(4) corresponds to an exchange in the t-channel by a resonance and has the Breit-Wigner form

$$T(s,t)=g_{13}g_{24}(s)^J/(tM_J^2+iM_J\mathrm{\Gamma }_J)$$
(6)
with a width $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_J=Im\alpha (M_J^2)/M_J\alpha ^{}(M_J^2).`$

Thus a reggeization of particle exchanges leads to a natural resolution of the above mentioned problem with a violation of the unitarity, -Regge trajectories, which correspond to particles with high spins can have $`\alpha (t)1`$ in the physical region of high energy scattering $`t<0`$ and the corresponding amplitudes will increase with s not faster than $`s^1`$, satisfying the unitarity. The experimental information on spectra of hadrons and high energy scattering processes nicely confirms this theoretical expectation. The only exception is the Pomeranchuk pole (or the Pomeron), which determines high energy behavior of diffractive processes. I shall pay a special attention to properties of the Pomeron in this review.

### 2.2  Bosonic and fermionic Regge poles, vacuum exchange

Let us consider the main properties of Regge poles.
a)Factorization. Regge poles couple to external particles in a factorizable way, which is manifest in eq.(4).
b)Regge poles have definite conserved quantum numbers like the baryon quantum number, parity $`P`$, isospin e.t.c. As it was mentioned above they have also a definite signature $`\sigma `$.

An information on trajectories of Regge poles can be obtained for $`t<0`$ from data on two-body reactions at large $`s`$ and for $`t>0`$ from our knowledge of the hadronic spectrum. We have seen that a bosonic trajectory corresponds to particles and resonances for those values of $`t`$ where it passes integer values $`(Re\alpha (t)=n)`$ even for $`\sigma =+`$ and odd for $`\sigma =`$. While for fermionic trajectories particles correspond to $`Re\alpha (t)=\frac{n}{2}=J`$ and signature $`\sigma =(1)^{J\frac{1}{2}}`$.
There can be many trajectories with the same quantum numbers indicated above, which differ by a quantum number analogous to the radial quantum number. Such trajectories are usually called ”daughter” trajectories and masses of corresponding resonances (with the same value of $`J`$) for them are higher than those for the leading trajectory with given quantum numbers.

Trajectories for some well established bosonic Regge poles are shown in Fig.3. Note that all these trajectories have $`\alpha _i(0)0.5`$ for $`t0`$. One of the most interesting properties of these trajectories is their surprising linearity. This usually interpreted as a manifestation of strong forces between quarks at large distances, which lead to color confinement. The linearity of Regge trajectories indicates to a string picture of the large distance dynamics between quarks and it was a basis of dual models for hadronic interactions.

Other properties of mesonic Regge trajectories, which are evident from Fig.3 are exchange and isospin degeneracies, - trajectories with different signatures and I=0 or I=1 (but with the same $`\sigma P`$) are degenerate with a good accuracy (at least in the region $`t>0`$). This is also in an agreement with dual models or approaches based on 1/N-expansion in QCD. In dual or string models of hadrons the daughter trajectories must be parallel to the leading one and displaced in the $`j`$-plane by integers. Experimental information on the daughter trajectories is rather limited but it does not contradict to these predictions.

Information on mesonic Regge trajectories in the region of negative $`t`$, obtained from an analysis of binary reactions at high energies fits quite well the lines shown in Fig.3 obtained from the spectrum of resonances. The most detailed information exists for $`\rho `$ and $`A_2`$-trajectories, which contribute to the reactions $`\pi ^{}p\pi ^0n`$ and $`\pi ^{}p\eta n`$ correspondingly.

Fermionic Regge trajectories are in general analytic functions of $`W=\sqrt{t}`$ and using the analyticity properties of the corresponding partial-wave amplitudes it is possible to show that there must be pairs of trajectories with different parity, which satisfy to the condition

$$\alpha _+(W)=\alpha _{}(W)$$
(7)
Experimental data on spectrum of baryons show that baryonic trajectories as well as mesonic ones are nearly straight lines in variable t with the universal slope $`\alpha ^{}1GeV^2.`$ This universality of the slopes is natural in the string picture of baryons with a quark and a diquark at the ends. However, according to eq.7 the fermionic trajectory, which is linear in $`t=W^2`$, does not change as $`WW`$ and thus should coincide with its parity partner. This in its turn leads to parity doubling of states on this Regge trajectory. Experimentally there are many baryonic states with the same spin and different parity, which are nearly degenerate in mass. However there are no partners for the lowest states ($`N,\mathrm{\Delta }`$) on these trajectories. This pattern of baryonic Regge trajectories is not yet understood theoretically. The relation 7 is a consequence of analyticity in relativistic quantum theory, but it is not realized in the existing quark models of baryons.

At the end of this section I shall discuss properties of the pole which has a special status in the Regge approach to particle physics - the Pomeranchuk pole or the Pomeron. This pole was introduces into theory in order account for diffractive processes at high energies. In the Regge pole model an amplitude of high energy elastic scattering has the form of eq.(4) and the total interaction cross section, which by the optical theorem is connected to $`ImT(s,0),`$ can be written as a sum of the Regge poles contributions

$$\sigma ^{tot}(s)=\underset{k}{}b_k(0)(s)^{\alpha _k(0)1}$$
(8)
The poles, which are shown in Fig.3 have $`\alpha _k(0)<1`$ and thus their contributions to $`\sigma ^{tot}(s)`$ decrease as a $`s\mathrm{}`$. However experimental data show that at $`s100GeV^2`$ total cross sections of hadronic interactions have a weak energy dependence and they slowly (logarithmically) increase with energy at higher energies. In the Regge pole model this can be related to the pole, which has an intercept $`\alpha _P(0)1.`$ This pole is usually called Pomeron or the vacuum pole, because it has the quantum numbers of the vacuum, - positive signature, parity and G (or C) parity and isospin I=0.

It is believed that in QCD this pole is related to gluonic exchanges in the t-channel. So it is usually assumed that gluonium states correspond to this trajectory in the region of positive $`t`$. We shall discuss possible relation between QCD and Regge theory in more details in the next chapters.

A value of intercept of the Pomeranchuk pole is of crucial importance for the Regge theory. If $`\alpha _P(0)=1`$, as it was assumed initially, then all the total interaction cross sections tend to a constant at very high energies. This theory has however some intrinsic difficulties and must satisfy to many constraints in order to be consistent with unitarity. Besides experimental data indicate that $`\sigma _{hN}^{(tot)}`$ rise with energy. This logarithmic increase of total cross sections at very high energies is in accord with $`ln^2s`$ behavior consistent with the Froissart theorem.$`^\mathrm{?}`$ Thus at present the supercritical Pomeron theory with $`\alpha _P(0)>1`$ is widely used. In a model with only Regge poles taken into account an assumption that $`\alpha _P(0)>1`$ would lead to a power like increase of total cross sections, thus violating the Froissart bound. However in this case other singularities in the $`j`$\- plane,- moving branch points should be taken into account and their contributions allow one to restore unitarity and to obtain the high energy behavior of scattering amplitudes which satisfy to the Froissart bound. Properties of these moving cuts are considered in the section 5.

Let us note that the Pomeranchuk singularity has a positive signature, so it gives equal contribution to amplitudes for elastic scattering of particle and antiparticle. Thus it automatically satisfies to the Pomeranchuk theorem on asymptotic equality of total interaction cross sections for particle and antiparticle. A difference between these amplitudes in the Regge model is connected to poles with negative signature (like $`\rho `$ and $`\omega `$). It is usually assumed that the only singularities in the j-plane with negative signature are due to the known Regge poles with $`\alpha _k(0)0.5.`$ In this case differences of cross sections for $`aN`$ and $`\overline{a}N`$-interactions decrease with energy as $`1/\sqrt{s}`$. This behavior agrees with existing experimental information. In principle it is possible to have a singularity with negative signature at $`j1`$. This singularity usually called ”odderon”. It appears in perturbative QCD calculations.

### 2.3 s-channel picture of reggeons

Regge poles give contributions to imaginary parts of two-body scattering amplitudes. For the Pomeron with $`\alpha _P(0)1`$ the amplitude is mostly imaginary. Unitarity relates imaginary parts of two-body amplitudes to sums over intermediate states in the s-channel. So the natural question is: what are the intermediate states connected to reggeons? These are so called multiperipheral states the properties of which I shall briefly discuss now.

Consider as an example the simplest inelastic process of $`\rho `$-mesons production in $`\pi \pi `$ collisions. The diagrams with pion exchange shown in Fig.4 give an important contribution to amplitudes of these processes. They lead to peripheral configurations - all $`\rho `$-mesons are produced with rather small momentum transfer $`m_\pi `$. The diagram of Fig. 4a) is large only at rather low energies when the average energy of the virtual pion in the lab. system ($`\alpha E,\alpha 1`$, $`E`$-is the lab. energy of the projectile) is low enough to produce a $`\rho `$ meson with a target pion. At higher energies the cross section of this process decreases with energy as $`1/s^2`$ . At these energies it is necessary to decrease the energy of the virtual pion in several steps as it is shown in Fig.4b) in order to have a slow virtual pion at the end of the chain. If the energy decreases by a factor $`\alpha `$ at each step then after n steps it will be $`\alpha ^nE`$ and we require that it is $`m_\rho `$. So on average the number of steps (related to the number of produced resonances) $`nln\frac{E}{m_\rho }/ln\frac{1}{\alpha }.`$

This is an example of the diagrams of the multiperipheral model $`^\mathrm{?}`$ of multiparticle production. Summation of these diagrams leads to the Regge-type behavior for an imaginary part of two-body amplitudes. So in this model reggeon corresponds to a sum of ladder-type diagrams shown in Fig.5.

Let us consider now the multiperipheral process in the impact parameter $`\stackrel{}{b}`$ space. Each step has a finite size in $`\stackrel{}{b}1/m_\pi `$. They add independently, so there is a random walk in the $`\stackrel{}{b}`$-space and the average size of interaction increases with energy as

$$\overline{R}^2\stackrel{}{b}^2\frac{\overline{n}}{m_\pi ^2}\frac{ln\frac{E}{m_\rho }}{m_\pi ^2}$$
(9)
The total time of development of the fluctuation in the lab. frame is large, \- $`\tau E/m^2.`$

In the multiperipheral model the hadronic final states have the following properties.
a) Short range correlations in rapidity. Particles separated by several steps of the multiperipheral process and having substantially different energies \[this means that difference of rapidities $`y_1y_2(y=ln(E+p_{})/m_{}`$) for these particles is large\] are uncorrelated. The correlation function exponentially decreases with rapidity difference

$$c(y_1,y_2)=\frac{d\sigma }{\sigma ^{in}dy_1dy_2}(\frac{d\sigma }{\sigma ^{in}dy_1})(\frac{d\sigma }{\sigma ^{in}dy_2})exp[\lambda (y_1y_2)]$$
(10)
This property of the multiparticle final state leads to many consequences for inclusive cross sections. Consider for example single particle inclusive cross section

$$f^aE\frac{d^3\sigma ^a}{d^3p}=\frac{d^2\sigma (y_1y_a,y_ay_2,p_a^2)}{dy_ad^2p_a}$$
(11)
Short range correlation between particles means in this case that all inclusive densities $`n^af^a/\sigma ^{in}`$ are independent of $`y_iy_k`$ for $`y_iy_k1.`$ For example at high energies when $`y_1y_2ln(s/m^2)1`$ in the fragmentation region of particle 1 $`y_1y_a1`$ and $`y_ay_2y_1y_21`$ the density $`n^a`$ becomes a function of only two variables

$$n^a=\varphi (y_1y_a,p_a^2)$$
(12)
b) The property eq.12 is equivalent to the Feynman scaling in variable $`x_F=2p_a/\sqrt{s}exp[(y_1y_a)]`$

$$n^a=\varphi (x_F,p_a^2)$$
(13)
c) In the central rapidity region when both $`y_1y_a`$ and $`y_ay_2`$ are large $`n^a`$ becomes a function of only one variable $`(p_a^2)`$. So in this model rapidity distributions in the central region are flat .
d) The average number of produced particles $`n`$ increases logarithmically with energy at large $`ln(s/m^2)`$.
e) There is a fast decrease of distributions with $`p_{}`$. The form of this function depends on details of the model.
f) Multiplicity distributions of produced particles in these models have Poisson-type behavior.

$$n^2n^2cn$$
(14)
This is a consequence of short range correlations in rapidity.

The properties of inclusive distributions listed above can be quantified in the Regge model, using Mueller-Kancheli $`^\mathrm{?}`$ diagrams . There is a relation between a discontinuity of $`33`$ forward scattering amplitude $`1\overline{a}21\overline{a}2`$ and inclusive cross section $`f^a`$ analogous to the optical theorem which relates a forward elastic scattering amplitude to a total cross section. For large $`y_iy_a(s_{i\overline{a}}m^2)`$ it is possible to use the Regge pole theory, which gives predictions on energy (rapidity) dependence of inclusive cross sections. For example consider the central region of rapidities when both $`y_1y_a1`$ and $`y_ay_21`$. In this case diagrams of double Regge limit (Fig.6) can be used and inclusive cross sections can be written as follows

$$f^a=\underset{i,k}{}g_{11}^i(0)g_{22}^k(0)g_{ik}^aexp[(\alpha _i(0)1)(y_1y_a)+(\alpha _k(0)1)(y_ay_2)]$$
(15)
These results can be easily obtained in the multiperipheral model.

### 2.4 Diffractive production processes

Let us consider now diffractive production of particles at high energies. In the Regge pole model these processes are described by the diagrams with Pomeron exchange (Fig.7 ). It is possible to have excitation of one of the colliding hadrons (Fig.7a) ), - single diffraction dissociation or excitation of both initial particles,- double diffraction dissociation (Fig.7b)).

For all diffractive processes there is a large rapidity gap between groups of produced particles. For example for single diffraction dissociation there is a gap between the particle $`1^{}`$ and the rest system of hadrons. This rapidity gap $`\mathrm{\Delta }yln(1/1x),`$ where $`x`$ the $`x_F`$ for hadron $`1^{}`$ in Fig.7a). A mass of diffractively excited state at large $`s`$ can be large. The only condition for diffraction dissociation is $`s_is`$. For large masses of excited states $`s_2(1x)s`$ and $`\xi ^{}\mathrm{\Delta }yln(s/s_2).`$

The cross section for inclusive single diffraction dissociation in the Regge pole model can be written in the following form

$$\frac{d^2\sigma }{d\xi _2dt}=\frac{(g_{11}(t))^2}{16\pi }|G_p(\xi ^{},t)|^2\sigma _{P2}^{(tot)}(\xi _2,t)$$
(16)
where $`\xi _2ln(s_2/s_0)`$ and $`G_p(\xi ^{},t)=\eta (\alpha _p(t))exp[(\alpha _p(t)1)\xi ^{}]`$ is the Pomeron Green function. The quantity $`\sigma _{P2}^{(tot)}(\xi _2,t)`$ can be considered as the Pomeron-particle total interaction cross section.$`^\mathrm{?}`$ Note that this quantity is not directly observable one and it is defined by its relation to the diffraction production cross section (eq.16 ). This definition is useful however because at large $`s_2`$ this cross section has the same Regge behavior as usual cross sections

$$\sigma _{P2}^{(tot)}(s_2,t)=\underset{k}{}g_{22}^k(0)r_{PP}^{\alpha _k}(t)(\frac{s_2}{s_0})^{\alpha _k(0)1}$$
(17)
where the $`r_{PP}^{\alpha _k}(t)`$ is the triple-reggeon vertex (Fig.8 ), which describes coupling of two Pomerons to reggeon $`\alpha _k`$.

In this kinematical region $`ss_2m^2`$ the inclusive diffractive cross section is described by the triple-Regge diagrams of Fig.8 and has the form

$$f^1=\underset{k}{}G_k(t)(1x)^{\alpha _k(0)2\alpha _P(t)}(\frac{s}{s_0})^{\alpha _k(0)1}$$
(18)
The Pomeron-proton total cross section and triple-Regge vertices $`r_{PP}^P,r_{PP}^f`$ have been determined from analysis of experimental data of diffractive production of particles in hadronic collisions (see reviews $`^\mathrm{?}`$).

## 3  Mesonic Regge poles in QCD

An astonishing linearity of trajectories for Regge-poles corresponding to the known $`q\overline{q}`$-states indicates to an essentially nonperturbative, string-like dynamics. A nonperturbative method, which can be used in QCD for description of large distance dynamics, is the $`1/N`$-expansion (or topological expansion).$`^{\mathrm{?},\mathrm{?}}`$

In this approach the quantities $`1/N_c`$$`^\mathrm{?}`$ or $`1/N_{lf}`$$`^\mathrm{?}`$ ( $`N_{lf}`$ is the number of light flavors) are considered as small parameters and amplitudes and Green functions are expanded in terms of these quantities. In QCD $`N_c=3`$ and $`N_{lf}3`$ and the expansion parameter does not look small enough. However we shall see below that in most cases the expansion parameter is $`1/N_c^20.1`$.

In the formal limit $`N_c\mathrm{}`$ ($`N_f/N_c0`$) QCD has many interesting properties and has been intensively studied theoretically. There is a hope to obtain an exact solution of the theory in this limit (2-dimensional QCD has been solved in the limit $`N_c\mathrm{}`$). However this approximation is rather far from reality, as resonances in this limit are infinitely narrow ($`\mathrm{\Gamma }1/N_c`$). The case when the ratio $`N_f/N_c1`$ is fixed and the expansion in $`1/N_f`$ (or $`1/N_c`$) is carried out $`^\mathrm{?}`$ seems more realistic.

This approach is called sometimes by the topological expansion, because the given term of this expansion corresponds to an infinite set of Feynman diagrams with definite topology. It should be emphasized that $`1/N`$-expansion should be applied to Green-functions or amplitudes for white states.

The first term of the expansion corresponds to the planar diagrams of the type shown in Fig.9 for the binary reaction. These diagrams always have as border lines the valence quarks of the colliding hadrons. At high energies they should correspond to exchanges by secondary Regge poles $`\alpha _R(\rho ,A_2,\omega ,\mathrm{})`$ ”made of” light quarks. The s-channel cutting of the planar diagram of Fig.9a) is shown in Fig.9b). Here and in the following we do not show internal lines of gluons and quark loops. This diagram corresponds to a multiparticle production, which has the same properties as in the multiperipheral model.

The topological classification of diagrams in QCD leads to many relations between parameters of the reggeon theory, hadronic masses, widths of resonances and total cross sections (for a review see $`^\mathrm{?}`$) . All these relations are in a good agreement with experiment.

A contribution of the planar diagrams to the total cross section decreases with energy as $`1/s^{(1\alpha _R(0))}1/\sqrt{s}.`$ This decrease is connected to the fact that quarks have spin 1/2 and in the lowest order of perturbation theory an exchange by two quarks in the t-channel leads to the behavior $`\sigma 1/s`$, which corresponds to the intercept $`\alpha _R(0)=0.`$ Interaction between quarks should lead to an increase of the intercept to the observed value $`\alpha _R(0)0.5`$.

Is it possible to calculate Regge-trajectories from QCD? Even for planar diagrams this is a difficult problem. It was considered in paper $`^\mathrm{?}`$ using the method of Wilson-loop path integral.$`^\mathrm{?}`$ It was shown that under a reasonable assumption about large distances dynamics: minimal area law for Wilson loop at large distances, confirmed by numerous lattice data, $`Wexp(\sigma S_{min})`$, it is possible to calculate spectrum of $`q\overline{q}`$-states. In these calculations virtual $`q\overline{q}`$-pairs and spin effects were neglected. It was shown that the mass spectrum can be determined from the following effective Hamiltonian $`H_0`$

$$H_0=\frac{p_r^2}{\mu (t)}+\mu (t)+\frac{L(L+1)}{r^2[\mu +2_0^1(\beta \frac{1}{2})^2\nu 𝑑\beta ]}+$$

$$+_0^1\frac{\sigma _{adj}^2d\beta }{2\nu (\beta ,t)}r^2+\frac{1}{2}_0^1\nu (\beta ,t)𝑑\beta $$
(19)
Here $`\mu (t)`$ and $`\nu (\beta ,t)`$ are positive auxiliary functions which are to be found from the extremum condition.$`^\mathrm{?}`$ Their extremal values are equal to the effective quark energy $`\mu `$ and energy density of the adjoint string $`\nu `$.

The resulting spectrum of $`H_0`$ for light quarks with a good accuracy is described by a very simple formula

$$\frac{M^2}{2\pi \sigma }=L+2n_r+c_1$$
(20)
This spectrum is shown in Fig.10 and corresponds to an infinite set of linear Regge trajectories similar to the one of dual and string models.
In order to make realistic calculations of masses of hadrons which can be compared with experiment it is necessary to take into account perturbative interactions at small distances, spin effects and quark loops. For light quarks spin effects are non trivial as the spontaneous violation of the chiral symmetry should be properly taken into account.

## 4 Glueballs and the Pomeron in QCD

It was mentioned above that the Pomeron in QCD is usually related to gluonic exchanges in the $`t`$-channel.$`^\mathrm{?}`$. This is connected with the fact that gluons naturally lead to the vacuum quantum numbers and the simplest perturbation theory diagram for scattering amplitude with an exchange by 2 gluons leads to a cross section which does not depend on energy (due to spin of gluon $`Sg=1`$). Thus in this approximation $`\alpha _P(0)=1.`$ In perturbation theory an interaction between gluons leads to an increase of the Pomeron intercept.$`^\mathrm{?}`$

From the point of view of 1/N-expansion the Pomeron is related to the cylinder-type diagrams, shown in Fig.11 with gluonic states (mixed with $`q\overline{q}`$-pairs) on a surface. In this approach the Pomeron is related to glueballs.

Glueballs are among the most intriguing objects both in experiment and theory. While experimental situation is not yet settled, lattice simulations $`^{\mathrm{?},\mathrm{?}}`$ yield an overall consistent picture of lowest ($`<4GeV`$) mass spectrum. The mass scale and level ordering of the resulting glueball spectra strongly differ from those of meson spectra, yielding a unique information about the nonperturbative structure of the gluonic vacuum.

The problem of spectra of glueballs and its relation to the Pomeron was considered in papers $`^{\mathrm{?},\mathrm{?}}`$, using the method of Wilson-loop path integral discussed above for the case of $`q\overline{q}`$-Regge poles.

In the approximation when the spin effects and quark loops are neglected the spectrum of two-gluon glueballs is determined by the same Hamiltonian $`H_0`$ given by eq.19 with the only difference that the string tension ($`\sigma _{fund}`$) for the $`q\overline{q}`$ system is changed to $`\sigma _{adj}`$. Thus the mass spectrum for glueballs is given be eq.20 with the change $`\sigma \sigma _{adj}`$.

The value of $`\sigma _{adj}`$ in (20) can be found from the string tension $`\sigma _{fund}`$ of $`q\overline{q}`$ system, multiplying it by $`\frac{9}{4}`$, as it follows from Casimir scaling observed on the lattices. Taking experimental Regge slope for mesons $`\alpha ^{}=0.89GeV^2`$ one obtains $`\sigma _{fund}=0.18GeV^2`$ and $`\sigma _{adj}0.40GeV^2`$.

In order to compare our results with the corresponding lattice calculations $`^{\mathrm{?},\mathrm{?}}`$ it is convenient to consider the quantity $`\overline{M}/\sqrt{\sigma _f}`$, which is not sensitive to the choice of string tension $`\sigma `$. We also introduce the spin averaged mass $`\overline{M}`$ which for $`L=0,n_r=0`$ states is defined as $`\overline{M}=\frac{1}{3}(M(0^{++})+2M(2^{++}))`$, and in a similar way for higher states. This definition takes into account the structure of spin-splitting terms, so that $`\overline{M}`$ can be compared with the eigenvalues $`M_0`$ of spinless Hamiltonian eq.19.

The comparison of our predictions for spin averaged masses of the lowest glueball states with corresponding lattice results is given in Table 1. For the average mass with $`L=2,n_r=0`$ lattice results are limited to the state $`3^{++}`$. An agreement is perfect especially for the mass of the lowest state which is calculated on lattices with highest accuracy.

Table 1
Spin averaged glueball masses $`M_G/\sqrt{\sigma _f}`$

| Quantum | | This | Lattice data | |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| numbers | | work | paper $`^\mathrm{?}`$ | paper $`^\mathrm{?}`$ |
| hline | $`l=0,n_r=0`$ | 4.68 | 4.66$`\pm `$0.14 | 4.55$`\pm `$0.23 |
| 2 gluon | $`l=1,n_r=0`$ | 6.0 | 6.36$`\pm `$0.6 | 6.1 $`\pm `$0.5 |
| states | $`l=0,n_r=1`$ | 7.0 | 6.68$`\pm `$0.6 | 6.45$`\pm `$0.5 |
|  | $`l=2,n_r=0`$ | 7.0 | 9.0 $`\pm `$0.7(3<sup>++</sup>) | 7.7 $`\pm 0.4(3^{++})`$ |
|  | $`l=1,n_r=1`$ | 8.0 |  | 8.14 $`\pm 0.4(2^+)`$ |
| 3 gluon | K=0 | 7.61 |  | 8.19$`\pm `$0.48 |
| state |  |  |  |  |

Table 2

Comparison of predicted glueball masses with lattice data

| $`J^{PC}`$ | M(GeV) | Lattice data | | $`M[G]/M[0^+]`$ | | Difference |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|  | This work | paper $`^\mathrm{?}`$ | paper $`^\mathrm{?}`$ | This work | paper $`^\mathrm{?}`$ |  |
| $`0^{++}`$ | 1.58 | 1.73$`\pm `$0.13 | 1.74$`\pm `$0.05 | 0.62 | 0.67(2) | -7% |
| $`0^{++}`$ | 2.71 | 2.67$`\pm `$0.31 | 3.14$`\pm `$0.10 | 1.06 | 1.03(7) | 3% |
| $`2^{++}`$ | 2.59 | 2.40$`\pm `$0.15 | 2.47$`\pm `$0.08 | 1.01 | 0.92(1) | 9% |
| $`2^{++}`$ | 3.73 | 3.29$`\pm `$0.16 | 3.21$`\pm `$0.35 |  |  |  |
| $`0^+`$ | 2.56 | 2.59$`\pm `$0.17 | 2.37$`\pm `$0.27 |  |  |  |
| $`0^+`$ | 3.77 | 3.64$`\pm `$0.24 |  | 1.47 | 1.40(2) | 5% |
| $`2^+`$ | 3.03 | 3.1$`\pm `$0.18 | 3.37$`\pm `$0.31 | 1.18 | 1.20(1) | -1% |
| $`2^+`$ | 4.15 | 3.89$`\pm `$0.23 |  | 1.62 | 1.50(2) | 8% |
| $`3^{++}`$ | 3.58 | 3.69$`\pm `$0.22 | 4.3$`\pm `$0.34 | 1.40 | 1.42(2) | -2% |
| $`1^{}`$ | 3.49 | 3.85$`\pm `$0.24 |  | 1.36 | 1.49(2) | -8% |
| $`2^{}`$ | 3.71 | 3.93$`\pm `$0.23 |  | 1.45 | 1.52(2) | -1% |
| $`3^{}`$ | 4.03 | 4.13$`\pm `$0.29 |  | 1.57 | 1.59(4) |  |

The spin splittings for glueball masses were calculated in paper $`^\mathrm{?}`$ assuming that spin effects can be treated as small perturbations. A largest correction is obtained for the lowest state from the spin-spin interaction. The results are compared with lattice calculations in the Table 2 (for $`\alpha _s=0.3`$).

Let us consider now the Pomeron Regge trajectory in this approach in more details, taking into account both nonperturbative and perturbative contributions to the Pomeron dynamics.

The large distance, nonperturbative contribution gives according to Eq.(20) for the leading glueball trajectory ($`n_r=0`$ )

$$\alpha _P(t)=c_1+\alpha _P^{}t+2$$
(21)
with $`\alpha _P^{}=\frac{1}{2\pi \sigma _a}`$.

In eq.21 spins of ”constituent” gluons are taken into account, but a small nonperturbative spin-spin interactions were neglected.

For the intercept of this trajectory we obtain $`\alpha _P(0)0.5`$, which is substantially below the value found from analysis of high-energy interactions $`\alpha _P(0)=1.08÷1.2`$. I would like to emphasize that contrary to interactions related to emission of real particles in the s-channel (for example emission of gluons in the perturbative ladder-type diagrams) the confining interaction considered above leads to a decrease of an intercept of a Regge trajectory compared to the Born approximation.

The most important nonperturbative source, which can lead to an increase of the Pomeron intercept is the quark-gluon mixing or account of quark-loops in the gluon ”medium”. In the 1/N -expansion this effect is proportional to $`N_f/N_c`$, where $`N_f`$ is the number of light flavors. In the leading approximation of the $`1/N_c`$-expansion there are 3 Regge-trajectories with vacuum quantum numbers, \- $`q\overline{q}`$-planar trajectories ($`\alpha _f`$ made of $`u\overline{u}`$ and $`d\overline{d}`$ quarks, $`\alpha _f^{}`$ made of $`s\overline{s}`$-quarks) and pure gluonic trajectory - $`\alpha _G`$. The transitions between quarks and gluons $`\frac{1}{N_c}`$ will lead to a mixing of these trajectories. Note that for a realistic case of $`G,f`$ and $`f^{}`$-trajectories (eq.21 and Fig.3) all 3-trajectories before mixing are close to each other in the small $`t`$ region. In this region mixing between trajectories is essential even for small coupling matrix $`g_{ik}(t).`$ Lacking calculation of these effects in QCD they were considered in the paper $`^\mathrm{?}`$ in a semi–phenomenological manner.

Denoting by $`\overline{\alpha }_i`$ the bare $`f,f^{}`$ and $`G`$–trajectories and introducing the mixing matrix $`g_{ik}(t)(i,k=1,2,3)`$ we obtain the following equation for determination of resulting trajectories after mixing.$`^\mathrm{?}`$

$$j^3j^2\overline{\alpha }_i+j(\underset{ik}{}\overline{\alpha }_i\overline{\alpha }_kg_{ik}^2)\overline{\alpha }_1\overline{\alpha }_2\overline{\alpha }_3+\underset{ikl}{}\overline{\alpha }_lg_{ik}^22g_{12}g_{13}g_{23}=0$$
(22)
For realistic values of $`g_{ik}(t)`$ (for details see $`^\mathrm{?}`$) the Pomeron intercept is shifted to the values $`\alpha _P(0)1`$. For $`t>1GeV^2`$ the Pomeron trajectory is very close to the planar $`f`$–trajectory, while the second and third vacuum trajectories – to $`\alpha _f^{}`$ and $`\alpha _G`$ correspondingly. In the region of large $`t>0`$ the effects of mixing are small.

It is interesting that with an account of the quark-gluon mixing the intercept of the Pomeron trajectory is close to the value $`j=1`$ corresponding to an exchange by 2 noninteracting gluons.

Up to now I have considered mostly nonperturbative, large distance dynamics of the Pomeron. A small distance dynamics of the Pomeron has been studied in many papers using the QCD perturbation theory (see for example reviews $`^\mathrm{?}`$). in the leading log approximation the Pomeron corresponds to a sum of the ladder-type diagrams with exchange of reggeized gluons in the t-channel (BFKL $`^\mathrm{?}`$ Pomeron). In this approximation the intercept of the Pomeron is equal to

$$\mathrm{\Delta }=\alpha _P(0)1=\alpha _s\frac{12}{\pi }ln2$$
(23)
It has been found recently $`^\mathrm{?}`$ that $`\alpha _s`$ corrections substantially decrease $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ compared to LLA result. The intercept of the Pomeron depends on the renormalization scheme and scale for $`\alpha _s`$. In the ”physical” (BLM) scheme values of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ are in the region $`0.15÷0.17`$ .$`^\mathrm{?}`$ Unfortunately it is very difficult to calculate higher order corrections in PQCD.

Sometimes the BFKL Pomeron is called ”hard” Pomeron contrary to the ”soft” one. However the equation for the Pomeron singularity contains both nonperturbative effects discussed above and perturbative dynamics. Thus the resulting ”physical” pole is a state due to both ”soft” and ”hard” interactions.

## 5  Regge cuts. High-energy hadronic interactions

### 5.1 Multi-Pomeron exchanges

Regge poles are not the only singularities in the complex angular momentum plane. Exchange by several reggeons in the $`t`$-channel shown for the Pomeron case in Fig.12 leads to moving branch points (or Regge cuts) in the j-plane. The positions of the branch points for t=0 can be expressed in terms of intercept of the Pomeranchuk pole

$$\alpha _{np}(0)1=n(\alpha _p(0)1)=n\mathrm{\Delta }$$
(24)
Contributions of these singularities to scattering amplitudes $`T_n(s,0)s^{1+n\mathrm{\Delta }}`$ are especially important at high energies for $`\mathrm{\Delta }>0`$. The whole series of n-Pomeron exchanges should be summed.

An account of these multi-Pomeron exchanges in the $`t`$-channel leads to unitarization of scattering amplitudes.

In the framework of 1/N-expansion the n-Pomeron exchange amplitudes are due to topologies with (n-1) handles and are of the order $`(1/N^2)^n.`$

The Gribov reggeon diagrams technique $`^\mathrm{?}`$ allows one to calculate contributions of Regge cuts to scattering amplitudes. I shall illustrate this using as an example the two-Pomeron exchange contribution to the elastic scattering amplitude.

The Pomeron-particle scattering amplitudes, which enter into the diagram of Fig.13, have usual analyticity properties in variables $`s_i`$ (poles and cuts) and changing the integration in the diagram from $`d^4k`$ to $`ds_1ds_2d^2k_{}/2s`$ one can write the diagram of two-Pomeron exchange in the form

$$T_{2P}(s,t)=\frac{i}{2!}\frac{d^2k_{}}{\pi }\eta _p(k_{}^2)\eta _p((\stackrel{}{k}_{}\stackrel{}{q})^2)$$

$$(\frac{s}{s_0})^{\alpha _P(k_{}^2)+\alpha _P((\stackrel{}{k}_{}\stackrel{}{q})^2)2}\times N_a(\stackrel{}{k}_{},\stackrel{}{q})N_b(\stackrel{}{k}_{},\stackrel{}{q})$$
(25)
The amplitudes $`T_{aP,bP}`$ decrease faster than $`1/s_i`$ at large $`s_i`$ and the contours of integrations on $`s_i`$ can be transformed in such a way that only discontinuities of these amplitudes at the right hand cut enter into $`N_a,N_b`$. The Pomeron-particle scattering amplitudes satisfy to the unitarity condition, and the discontinuities can be expressed as a sum over contributions of intermediate states on mass shell. Thus the two-Pomeron exchange diagram of Fig.13 can be expressed as the sum of diagrams, shown in Fig.14. The diagram of Fig. 14a) corresponds to the P pole contribution to the elastic scattering amplitude, while the diagrams of Fig. 14 b)-d) are P pole contributions to inelastic diffraction.

The diagrams with n-Pomeron exchange in the t-channel can be treated in the same way. The sum of the elastic rescatterings leads to the eikonal formula for the amplitude of ab-scattering in the impact parameter space

$$f_{ab}(s,b)=\frac{i}{2}(1exp[2i\delta _P(s,b)])$$
(26)
where $`\delta _P(s,b)=\frac{d^2q}{2\pi }exp(i\stackrel{}{q}\stackrel{}{b})T_P(s,q_{}^2)`$. In general $`f(s,b)`$ can be written in the form

$$f(s,b)=\frac{1}{2i}\underset{n=1}{\overset{\mathrm{}}{}}\frac{(v_p)^n}{n!}\gamma _n$$
(27)
where $`v_P(s,b)=2i\delta _P(s,b).`$ In the eikonal approximation all $`\gamma _n=1.`$ All diagrams in Fig.14 have the same sign. This leads to the constraint $`\gamma _2C>1,`$ which means that $`|T_{2P}|`$ for the contribution of the PP-cut to the amplitude is always larger than the eikonal value . A simplest generalization of the eikonal model, which takes into account also inelastic diffractive intermediate states is so called ”quasieikonal” model, where $`\gamma _n=C^{n1}`$ and the amplitude $`f(s,b)`$ has the form

$$f(s,b)=\frac{i}{2C}(1exp(Cv_P))$$
(28)
The function $`v_P(s,b)s^\mathrm{\Delta }`$ and it becomes large at very high energies. In this limit the scattering amplitude for elastic scattering $`f(s,b)i/2`$ in the eikonal model (scattering on a black disk) and $`f(s,b)1/2C`$ in the quasieikonal model (scattering on a grey disc). This property of the quasieikonal model is closely related to the fact that one of the eigen states for the diffractive matrix $`\widehat{v}_P`$ has in this model a zero eigenvalue. This is a crude approximation, which takes into account a big difference in the interaction cross section of hadrons with different transverse sizes. Configurations of quarks inside hadrons with small transverse size $`r`$ have total interaction cross sections $`r^2`$, because hadrons in QCD interact as color dipoles. There is a distribution of quarks and gluons inside colliding hadrons with different values of $`r`$ so one can expect that there will be a slow approach to the black disk limit for elastic scattering amplitude as $`s\mathrm{}`$. In this limit the effective radius of interaction increases as ln s. Thus total interaction cross sections for the supercritical Pomeron theory have Froissart type behavior $`\sigma ^{(tot)}ln^2(s)`$ as $`s\mathrm{}`$.

### 5.2  AGK-cutting rules

Now we shall discuss the s-channel unitarity for contributions of Pomeron cuts. The connection between different s-channel intermediate states and contribution of cuts to the imaginary part of elastic scattering amplitude is given by Abramovsky, Gribov, Kancheli (AGK)-cutting rules. $`^\mathrm{?}`$ I shall illustrate them using as an example two-Pomeron exchange amplitude (Fig.13). Its contribution to the imaginary part of the forward elastic ab-scattering amplitude is negative and can be denoted as $`T_{2P}(s,b)=A(s)`$ and to the $`\sigma ^{(tot)}`$ as $`\sigma _2.`$

There are three different classes of diagrams, which can be obtained by the s-channel cuttings of the diagram of Fig.15. They contribute to different classes of physical processes.

a) The cutting between the Pomerons leads to diffractive processes (both elastic and inelastic), shown in Fig.15 a). Their contributions to the $`ImT_{ab}(s,0)`$ and $`\sigma ^{(tot)}`$ according to AGK-rules are A(s) and $`\sigma _2`$ correspondingly.
b) Cutting through one of Pomerons (Fig.15 b)) leads to absorptive corrections for the multiperipheral type inelastic production of particles, corresponding to the s-channel content of the Pomeron. AGK rules give for this contribution-4A(s) and $`4\sigma _2`$ correspondingly.
c) Cutting through both of Pomerons (Fig.15 c)) leads to a new process,- production of two multiperipheral chains. According to AGK-rules this contributes 2A(s) to the imaginary part of the forward scattering amplitude and $`2\sigma _2`$ to the total cross section.

The summary contribution of all these process to the total cross section is $`(14+2)\sigma _2=\sigma _2.`$

The AGK rules are formulated $`^\mathrm{?}`$ for arbitrary diagrams with exchange of $`n`$ reggeons in the t-channel. They allow to classify all multiparticle configurations and calculate their weights in terms of contributions to forward elastic scattering amplitude (or the corresponding amplitudes in the impact parameter space). For example in the eikonal or quasieikonal models all cross sections (diffractive and inelastic with different number of multiperipheral chains) can be expressed in terms of a single Pomeron exchange contribution to an elastic scattering amplitude.

Let us consider some consequences of these rules for particle production at very high energies.
1) For a sum of all n-Pomeron exchange diagrams of the eikonal-type (without interaction between Pomerons) there is a cancellation of their contributions to the single particle inclusive spectra in the central rapidity region for $`n2`$ .$`^\mathrm{?}`$ So only the pole diagram of Fig.6 contributes and inclusive spectra increase with energy as $`f^a(s/s_0)^\mathrm{\Delta }.`$ This means in particular that a study of an energy dependence of inclusive spectra in the central rapidity region gives more reliable information on the value of $`\mathrm{\Delta },`$ than $`\sigma ^{(tot)},`$ where Pomeron cuts strongly modify energy dependence compared to the pole diagram. Inclusive charged particles density at $`y=0`$ for $`pp(\overline{p}p)`$-collisions has a fast increase with energy and can be described in eikonal-type models with the intercept of the Pomeron in the range $`\mathrm{\Delta }=0.120.14`$. The calculation of the total and elastic scattering cross sections in the same model with these values of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ also leads to a good description of experiment.$`^{\mathrm{?},\mathrm{?}}`$ It should be noted that the value of $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$ becomes larger $`(\mathrm{\Delta }0.2)`$ if the interaction between Pomerons is taken into account $`^\mathrm{?}`$ (see below).
2) Pomeron cuts lead to long range correlations in rapidity. Existence of such correlations (for example long range correlations between number of particles produced in the forward and backward hemispheres in the c.m. system) is now firmly established in particle production at high energies.
3) Existence of poliperipheral contributions with several multiperipheral chains leads to broad multiplicity distributions of produced hadrons with the dispersion $`Dn.`$ The s-channel cutting of a single Pomeron leads to a Poisson-type distribution with $`n=n_P,`$ for cutting of two Pomerons (Fig.14 c)) the distribution is of the same type but with $`n2n_p`$ and so on. The summary contribution for cuttings of all n-Pomeron exchange diagrams is broad and has a complicated form. At not too high energies contributions from different n strongly overlap and multiplicity distributions satisfy to a good accuracy KNO-scaling $`(n\sigma _n/\sigma ^{(in)}=f(n/n)).`$ However as energy increases KNO scaling is violated. The models based on the reggeon diagrams technique and AGK-cutting rules $`^{\mathrm{?},\mathrm{?}}`$ give a good quantitative description of multiplicity distributions .

The theoretical models mentioned above (the Dual Parton Model $`^\mathrm{?}`$ and the Quark Gluon Strings Model $`^\mathrm{?}`$ use besides the reggeon theory also 1/N-expansion for interpretation of different reggeon diagrams in QCD. This leads to a very predictive approach to multiparticle production in hadron -hadron, hadron-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions. With a small number of parameters these models allow one to describe total and elastic cross sections, diffraction dissociation, multiplicity distributions, inclusive cross sections for different types of hadrons e.t.c. in a broad region of energies.$`^{\mathrm{?},\mathrm{?}}`$. In the following we shall apply the same approach to DIS in the small $`x`$ region.

### 5.3 Interactions between Pomerons

In the eikonal-type models discussed above the diffraction dissociation to the states with not too large masses has been taken into account. The diffractive production of states with large masses is related, as we know from the discussion of diffractive processes, to the diagrams of the type shown in Fig.8 with interaction between Pomerons. Neglect in the first approximation by these interactions is justified by a smallness of triple-Pomeron and 4-Pomeron interaction vertices, found from analysis of diffractive processes.$`^\mathrm{?}`$ However at very high energies it is necessary to include all these diagrams in order to have a selfconsistent description of high energy hadronic interactions, including large mass diffractive production of particles. It was demonstrated in paper $`^\mathrm{?}`$ that inclusion of these diagrams leads in most of the cases to predictions which are very close to the results of eikonal type models, however the value of the ”bare” Pomeron intercept increases up to the value $`\alpha _P(0)1.2`$.

## 6 Small-x physics

This section is devoted to a problem of small-x physics in deep inelastic scattering (DIS) . This problem became especially actual due to recent experimental investigation of this region at HERA accelerator.

In DIS it is possible to study different asymptotic limits. For a virtuality of the photon $`Q^2\mathrm{}`$ and $`x=Q^2/(W^2+Q^2)1`$ the usual QCD evolution equations can be applied and $`Q^2`$ dependence of the structure functions can be predicted if an initial condition for structure functions at $`Q^2=Q_0^2`$ is formulated. On the other hand if $`Q^2`$ is fixed and $`x0`$ (or $`\mathrm{ln}(1/x)\mathrm{}`$) the asymptotic Regge limit is relevant. The most interesting question is what is the behavior of DIS in the region where both $`\mathrm{ln}(1/x)`$ and $`\mathrm{ln}(Q^2)`$ are large? This is a transition region between perturbative and nonperturbative dynamics in QCD and its study can give an important information on the properties of confinement and its relation to the QCD perturbation theory. The asymptotic Regge limit in DIS can be related to high-energy limit of hadronic interactions and is described in terms of the Pomeranchuk singularity.

Experiments at HERA have found two extremely important properties of small-$`x`$ physics : a fast increase of parton densities as $`x`$ decreases $`^{\mathrm{?},\mathrm{?}}`$ and the existence of substantial diffractive production in deep inelastic scattering (DIS).$`^{\mathrm{?},\mathrm{?}}`$

A fast increase of $`\sigma _{\gamma ^{}p}^{(tot)}`$ as $`W^2s`$ increases at large $`Q^2`$ observed experimentally $`^{\mathrm{?},\mathrm{?}}`$ raises a question: whether there are two different Pomerons – ”soft” and ”hard”? From the discussion of the Pomeron in QCD above it follows that there are no theoretical reasons for such a situation and most probably the rightmost pole in the $`j`$–plane is generated by both ”soft” and ”hard” dynamics. I shall assume that there is one (”physical”) Pomeron pole with the same $`\alpha _P(0)`$ as it was determined from high–energy hadronic interactions with an account of many–Pomeron cuts. On the other hand the effective intercept, which depends on relative contribution of multi–Pomeron diagrams, can be different in different processes.

In paper $`^\mathrm{?}`$ it was suggested that the increase of the effective intercept of the Pomeron, $`\alpha _{eff}=1+\mathrm{\Delta }_{eff}`$, as $`Q^2`$ increases from zero to several GeV<sup>2</sup> is mostly due to a decrease of shadowing effects with increasing $`Q^2`$. A parametrization of the $`Q^2`$ dependence of $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{eff}`$ such that $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{eff}0.1`$ for $`Q^20`$ (as in soft hadronic interactions) and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{eff}0.2`$ (bare Pomeron intercept) for $`Q^2`$ of the order of a few GeV<sup>2</sup>, gives a good description of all existing data on $`\gamma ^{}p`$ total cross-sections in the region of $`Q^25÷10`$ GeV<sup>2</sup>.$`^{\mathrm{?},\mathrm{?}}`$ At larger $`Q^2`$ effects due to QCD evolution become important. Using the above parametrization as the initial condition in the QCD evolution equation, it is possible to describe the data in the whole region of $`Q^2`$ studied at HERA.$`^{\mathrm{?},\mathrm{?}}`$

In the reggeon approach discussed above there are good reasons to believe that the fast increase of the $`\sigma _{\gamma ^{}p}`$ with energy in the HERA energy range will change to a milder increase at much higher energies. This is due to multi–Pomeron effects, which are related to shadowing in highly dense systems of partons - with eventual “saturation” of densities. This problem has a long history (for reviews see $`^{\mathrm{?},\mathrm{?}}`$) and has been extensively discussed in recent years.$`^\mathrm{?}`$ It is closely connected to the problem of the dynamics of very high-energy heavy ion collisions.$`^\mathrm{?}`$

This problem was investigated recently in our paper $`^\mathrm{?}`$, where reggeon approach was applied to the processes of diffractive $`\gamma ^{}p`$ interaction. It was emphasized in the previous section that in the reggeon calculus $`^\mathrm{?}`$ the amount of rescatterings is closely related to diffractive production. AGK-cutting rules $`^\mathrm{?}`$ allow to calculate the cross-section of inelastic diffraction if contributions of multi-Pomeron exchanges to the elastic scattering amplitude are known. Thus, it is very important for self-consistency of theoretical models to describe not only total cross sections, but, simultaneously, inelastic diffraction. In particular in the reggeon calculus the variation of $`\mathrm{\Delta }_{eff}`$ with $`Q^2`$ is related to the corresponding variation of the ratio of diffractive to total cross sections. In the paper $`^\mathrm{?}`$ an explicit model for the contribution of rescatterings was constructed which leads to the pattern of energy behavior of $`\sigma _{\gamma ^{}p}^{(tot)}(W^2,Q^2)`$ for different $`Q^2`$ described above. Moreover, it allows to describe simultaneously diffraction production by real and virtual photons. In this model it is possible to study quantitatively a regime of ”saturation” of parton densities.

Let us discuss briefly the qualitative picture of diffractive dissociation of a highly virtual photon at high energies. It is convenient to discuss this process in the lab. frame, where the quark-gluon fluctuations of a photon live a long time $`1/x`$ (Ioffe time $`^\mathrm{?}`$). A virtual photon fluctuates first to $`q\overline{q}`$ pair. There are two different types of configurations of such pair, depending on transverse distance between quarks (or $`k_{})`$.
a) Small size configurations with $`k_{}^2Q^2`$. These small dipoles ($`r1/k_{}1/Q`$) have a small ($`r^2`$) total interaction cross section with the proton.
b) Large size configurations with $`r1/\mathrm{\Lambda }_{QCD}`$ and $`k_{}\mathrm{\Lambda }_{QCD}Q`$. They have a large total interaction cross section, but contribute with a small phase space at large $`Q^2`$, because these configurations are kinematically possible only if the fraction of longitudinal momentum carried by one of the quarks is very small $`x_1k_{}^2/Q^21`$. This configuration corresponds to the ”aligned jet”, introduced by Bjorken and Kogut.$`^\mathrm{?}`$

Both configurations lead to the same behaviour of $`\sigma _{\gamma ^{}p}1/Q^2`$, but they behave differently in the process of the diffraction dissociation of a virtual photon $`^{\mathrm{?},\mathrm{?}}`$. The cross section of such a process is proportional to a square of modulus of the corresponding diffractive amplitude and for a small size configuration it is small ($`1/Q^4`$). For large size configurations a smallness is only due to the phase space and the inclusive cross section for diffractive dissociation of a virtual photon decreases as $`1/Q^2`$, i.e. in the same way as the total cross section. This is true only for the total inclusive diffractive cross section, where characteristic masses of produced states are $`M^2Q^2`$. For exclusive channels with fixed mass (for example production of vector mesons) situation is different and these cross sections decrease faster than $`1/Q^2`$ at large $`Q^2`$.

Inclusive diffractive production of very large masses ($`M^2Q^2`$) can be described in the first approximation by triple-Regge diagrams (Fig.8).$`^\mathrm{?}`$ From the point of view of the quark-gluon fluctuation of the fast photon triple-Pomeron contribution corresponds to diffractive scattering of very slow (presumably gluonic) parton, which has a small virtuality.

The model $`^\mathrm{?}`$ uses the picture of diffraction dissociation of a virtual photon outlined above and is a natural generalization of models used for the description of high-energy hadronic interactions. The interaction of the small size component in the wave function of a virtual photon is calculated using QCD perturbation theory. The main parameter of the model - intercept of the Pomeron was fixed from a phenomenological study of these interactions discussed above ($`\mathrm{\Delta }_P=0.2`$) and was found to give a good description of $`\gamma ^{}p`$-interactions in a broad range of $`Q^2`$ ($`0Q^2<10GeV^2`$). Another important parameter of the theory, the triple Pomeron vertex, obtained from a fit to the data ($`r_{PPP}^{(0)}/g_{pp}^P(0)0.1`$) is also in reasonable agreement with the analysis of soft hadronic interactions.$`^{\mathrm{?},\mathrm{?}}`$ The description of $`\sigma _{\gamma ^{}p}^{(tot)}`$ as a function of s for different values of $`Q^2`$ ( experimental data are from H1 $`^\mathrm{?}`$, ZEUS $`^\mathrm{?}`$) is shown in Fig.16. Diffraction dissociation of a virtual photon is usually presented as a function of $`Q^2,M^2`$ (or $`\beta =Q^2/(M^2+Q^2)`$) and $`x_P=x/\beta =(M^2+Q^2)/(W^2+Q^2)`$. Description of HERA data on diffractive dissociation $`^\mathrm{?}`$ in the model is shown in Fig.17. The model reproduces experimental data quite well. It can be used to predict structure functions and partonic distributions at higher energies or smaller $`x`$, which will be accessible for experiments at LHC.

## 7 Acknowledgments

I am grateful to K.Boreskov, A.Capella, V.Fadin, E.G. Ferreiro, O.V. Kancheli, J.H. Koch, G. Korchemski, E. Levin, L.N. Lipatov, C. Merino, C.A. Salgado, K.A. Ter-Martirosyan and J. Tran Thanh Van for useful discussions.
This work is supported in part by the grants RFFI-98-02-17463 and NATO OUTR.LG 971390.

## References


text:
# I Introduction

## I Introduction

The transformation of a continuum ergodic liquid into an amorphous glassy state with solid-like behaviour has been an area of much current research interest. The ambiguities concerning the glassy or the supercooled state have led to the development of a large number of theoretical approaches  that are used to study the basic characteristics of a system undergoing such a transition. These techniques explore both the dynamic and the thermodynamic properties of the supercooled states. A liquid is supercooled while avoiding crystallization such that its density structure loses the homogeneity of a liquid state and attains a heterogeneous density profile. From a thermodynamic point of view, the supercooled state represents a metastable state relative to the crystal and is characterized by an inhomogeneous and aperiodic density structure. This aperiodic crystal picture of the supercooled state is considered here to study its stability from a thermodynamic approach. In this work, we intend to explore the “Free Volume” picture of the supercooled liquid  by studying the Free energy landscape of an amorphous lattice characterized by a finite fraction of vacancies.

Fox and Flory  first postulated that the liquid-glass transition resulted from the decrease of “free volume” of the amorphous phase below some critical value. Subsequently, this concept was further elaborated by Cohen $`\&`$ Turnbull  and later by Cohen $`\&`$ Grest  who formally developed the theoretical aspects using the percolation theory. The basic phenomenology behind the Free Volume models is that transport of particles occurs by their flow into voids of a size greater than a critical value formed by the redistribution of some “free volume”. The latter is loosely defined as some surplus volume that is not taken up by the particles. As a consequence of this theory, the relation between the free volume concentration and the transport properties of the supercooled state like the viscosity was also investigated. Doolittle  found empirically that the fluidity (inverse of viscosity) of many simple hydrocarbon liquids could be represented in terms of free volume as,

$$\varphi =\varphi _oexp\left(\frac{cv_o}{v_f}\right)$$
(1)
where $`\varphi `$ denotes the fluidity and $`c`$ is a constant of order unity. Here $`v_f`$ denotes the average free volume per molecule, $`v_f=\overline{v}v_o`$, $`\overline{v}`$ being the average volume per molecule and $`v_o`$ is the van der Waals volume of the molecule. Williams $`etal.`$ showed that this result is valid for a large number of glass formers. They proposed that a linear relation exists between the free volume $`v_f`$ and the distance from transition on the temperature scale $`TT_g`$. This, through eqn.(1), in turn gives rise to the typical Vogal-Fulcher divergence of viscosity.

The Density Functional Theory (DFT) is an appropriate liquid based theory to undertake this study. This theory is based upon the simple ideology of identifying a solid as a strongly nonuniform liquid. This notion of describing the properties of a highly non-uniform phase in terms of the fairly well-developed liquid state theory was first put forward by Kirkwood and Monroe . Later on, Ramakrishnan and Yussouf (RY)  formulated it in terms of direct correlation function and successfully applied this concept to liquid-solid coexistence problem by expressing the properties of the highly organized solid( the non-uniform phase) as a perturbation of those of the coexisting liquid. The mathematical formulation of this simple concept was further elucidated by Haymet and Oxtoby  and a fair amount of success has since been achieved in solving problems related to simple inhomogeneous density structures. This theory has been lately applied to study the static aspects of supercooled amorphous structures. These studies were mainly initiated by Singh $`et.al.`$  and were followed by similar studies using different density functional treatments . Two types of Free energy minima were located for such systems. The first corresponding to highly localized amorphous structures that were identified as the “hard sphere glass” state . A different class of minima were detected  in the Free energy landscape of the same random structure, that represented weakly localized heterogeneous structures. These structures were shown to be more realistically associated with the structure of supercooled states seen in computer simulation studies. The metastable character of the different type of minima in the free energy landscape by modeling “free volume” in the density function characteristic of these structures is explored here. This has the effect of increased heterogeneous character of the underlying amorphous structure. We compute the Free energy functional using the RY expansion around a uniform state.

The motivation of the present work is to formulate the concept of free volumes in a simple density functional formalism and use its variational nature to investigate whether there is any optimum value of the free volumes associated with the metastable phase, giving a free energy minima. In the model presented here, the free volumes in the system are constructed as the vacancies at the prescribed lattice sites of the Bernal’s random structure . Such a modeling leads to a scenario of increased amount of local unoccupied volume in the system and that is how we define “free volume” in this work. The major requirement of such theories is the formulation of the test density function which is relevant to the type of structure whose stability is being considered. The variational principle is then invoked to determine the density structure corresponding to the minimum of the Free energy functional. P. Tarazona  first proposed to consider the ensemble averaged density distribution as a summation over Gaussian profiles centered over the lattice sites of the given inhomogeneous structure. Since then, such a formulation has been followed almost uniformly in all the related Density Functional studies. In this approach, the density is parameterized in terms of the mass localization parameter $`\alpha `$ which is proportional to the width of the Gaussian profiles. This parameter has the effect of quantifying the motion of particles in the system. The $`\alpha 0`$ limit depicts Gaussian profiles of infinite width and thus the corresponding phase represents the homogeneous liquid state. Increasing values of $`\alpha `$ represent increasingly localized structures and thus referring to greater inhomogeneity in the system. The $`\alpha `$ corresponding to the Free energy minima finally determines the phase which the system prefers thermodynamically. To include vacancies in the system, the parameter space of the density function is increased. The homogeneous presence of a specific concentration of vacancies in the system leads to a uniform decrease in the number of occupied sites in each co-ordination shell around any arbitrary position in the system. In an ensemble-averaged picture this amounts to expressing the density function as,

$$\rho (\stackrel{}{r})=𝒫(\frac{\alpha }{\pi })^{\frac{3}{2}}\underset{i=1}{\overset{N_L}{}}e^{\alpha |\stackrel{}{r}\stackrel{}{R}_i|^2)}$$
(2)
where $`𝒫`$ actually serves as the fraction of sites present in any $`i^{th}`$ shell around the position $`\stackrel{}{r}`$ in the system, such that $`\mathrm{\Delta }_v=1𝒫`$ represents the vacancy concentration in the system. We assume the vacancies to be distributed homogeneously throughout the system and hence this fraction is the same for all the shells around any arbitrary position in the system. This approximation is followed from Jones and Mohanty  who considered defects in a perfect crystal structure. Here $`N_L`$ is the number of lattice sites in volume V out of which $`N`$ sites are occupied by the particles. The average particle density is thus, $`\rho _o=𝒫\rho _b`$ where $`\rho _b`$ represents the average lattice density. Thus the Free energy minimization is carried out with respect to $`\alpha `$ and $`𝒫`$. These two parameters elaborate on two different structural aspects of the stable phase. We mainly explore the existence of a critical free volume concentration $`𝒫`$ and its variation with density for the two different class of minima seen for amorphous structures.

The paper is organized in the following manner : In section II we give the details related to the calculation of the Free energy functional formulated so as to include the effects of free volume. In section III we evaluate the effects on the stability of the amorphous structures by the induction of vacancies in the density structure. Here we present the analysis conducted for amorphous system in both the extremely localized and the weakly localized regimes. The implications of these results are further discussed in the section IV and relevance with the dynamical studies is quantitavely explored.

## II The Model Studied

The Helmholtz Free energy can be expressed as a sum of the purely entropic contribution given by the ideal gas term and the contribution due to the interactions in the system identified as the excess term in the general terminology.

$$[\rho (\stackrel{}{r})]=𝑑\stackrel{}{r}\rho (\stackrel{}{r})(ln(^3\rho (\stackrel{}{r}))1)\mathrm{\Phi }[\rho (\stackrel{}{r})]$$
(3)
Here $`\rho (\stackrel{}{r})`$ is the ensemble averaged local density distribution and $`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ represents the excess part of the Free energy. $`\mathrm{\Phi }[\rho (\stackrel{}{r})]`$ is expressed as a perturbation around a liquid of density $`\rho _o`$. The functional Taylor series expansion about the homogenous density distribution $`\rho _o`$ is given as ,

$`\mathrm{\Phi }[\rho (\stackrel{}{r})]\mathrm{\Phi }(\rho _o)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle 𝑑\stackrel{}{r}_1\delta \rho (\stackrel{}{r}_1)\left[\beta \mu _o+ln(^3\rho _o)\right]}`$
$`+{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}{\displaystyle 𝑑\stackrel{}{r}_1𝑑\stackrel{}{r}_2c(\stackrel{}{r}_1\stackrel{}{r}_2;\rho _o)\delta \rho (\stackrel{}{r}_1)\delta \rho (\stackrel{}{r}_2)}`$
where $`\mu _o`$ is the chemical potential of the uniform phase and $`c(r;\rho _o)`$ is the direct correlation function of the homogeneous state of density $`\rho _o`$. In the present work we consider the perturbation expansion of the excess Free energy around the uniform system of the same density as the average density of the corresponding inhomogeneous structure, i.e.,

$$\rho _o=\frac{1}{V}𝑑\stackrel{}{r}\rho (\stackrel{}{r})$$
(5)
The Free energy expression in this case reduces to the following form,

$`[\rho (\stackrel{}{r})](\rho _o)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle 𝑑\stackrel{}{r}\rho (\stackrel{}{r})ln\left(\frac{\rho (\stackrel{}{r})}{\rho _o}\right)}`$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}{\displaystyle 𝑑\stackrel{}{r}_1𝑑\stackrel{}{r}_2\delta \rho (\stackrel{}{r}_1)\delta \rho (\stackrel{}{r}_2)c(\stackrel{}{r}_1\stackrel{}{r}_2;\rho _o)}.`$
Here $`\delta \rho (\stackrel{}{r})`$ is the deviation of the inhomogeneous state density $`\rho (\stackrel{}{r})`$ from the average density $`\rho _o`$. The minimization of this free energy functional then determines the density function corresponding to the stable ( or metastable) state of the given system. The first term is the purely entropic contribution to the Free energy and the interactions in the system are responsible for the second term.

This functional is then minimized in a constrained manner by the specification of the underlying lattice as the input. This information is carried by the site-site correlation function $`g(R)`$ of the particular structure considered. Bernal’s random structure  is considered as a good approximation for the static structure of undercooled liquid state. We follow the earlier approach of supplying the $`g(R)`$ of the Bernal structure determined from the Bennett’s algorithm  and approximate ,

$$g(\stackrel{}{R})=g_B[R(\frac{\eta }{\eta _o})^{\frac{1}{3}}]$$
(7)
where $`\eta `$ denotes the average packing fraction. Here $`\eta _o`$ is used as a scaling parameter for the structure,  such that at $`\eta =\eta _o`$ the structure corresponds to Bernal packing, so that different values of $`\eta _o`$ relate to different structures. Now we elaborate the computational aspects of reducing these expressions for the specific case of a random structure.

With the density function expressed in terms of defects, i.e. eqn.(2), the Ideal gas part of the Free energy per particle can in general be expressed as,

$$\mathrm{\Delta }f_{id}[\rho ]=𝒫𝑑\stackrel{}{r}\varphi (\stackrel{}{r})\left[ln\left(\frac{𝒫}{\rho _o}𝑑\stackrel{}{R}\varphi (\stackrel{}{r}\stackrel{}{R})\left(\delta (\stackrel{}{R})+\rho _og(\stackrel{}{R})\right)\right)\right]$$
(8)
for an amorphous structure described by the radial distribution function $`g(R)`$ referred above. This is obtained by the use of eqn.(2) in the ideal gas term of eqn.(II The Model Studied). The random structure is marked by a vacancy concentration of $`\mathrm{\Delta }_v`$. In the above expression, the function $`\varphi (\stackrel{}{r}\stackrel{}{R})`$ represents a Gaussian function centered at a position $`\stackrel{}{R}`$, i.e., $`\varphi (\stackrel{}{r}\stackrel{}{R})=(\frac{\alpha }{\pi })^{\frac{3}{2}}e^{\alpha |\stackrel{}{r}\stackrel{}{R}|^2)}`$. The density structure of the system in a highly localized state is represented by sharply peaked Gaussian functions centered around the lattice sites. This asymptotic limit corresponds to large $`\alpha `$ and the ideal gas part of free energy (eqn.(8)) reduces to,

$$\mathrm{\Delta }f_{id}[\rho ]\left[\frac{3}{2}+ln\rho _oln𝒫+\frac{3}{2}ln\left(\frac{\pi }{\alpha }\right)\right].$$
(9)
This is obtained by replacing the summation inside the logarithmic term by just the contribution from the nearest site. This reduction is although not valid for consideration of the weakly localized state of the amorphous structure where the $`\alpha `$ values are small and the Gaussian functions wide enough to cause considerable overlap over different sites such that the above reduction can no longer be justified. Thus in the range of small $`\alpha `$ we numerically evaluate the equation (8) as such and the equation (9) in the large $`\alpha `$ regions. In our earlier work  we have shown that these two expressions start merging for typically $`\alpha >40`$ within $`1\%`$. Similarly we formulate the evaluation of the excess term per particle as,

$`\mathrm{\Delta }f_{ex}`$ $`=`$ $`\rho _o{\displaystyle 𝑑\stackrel{}{r}c(r;\rho _o)}{\displaystyle \frac{𝒫}{2}}{\displaystyle 𝑑\stackrel{}{r}_1𝑑\stackrel{}{r}_2\varphi (\stackrel{}{r}_1)\varphi (\stackrel{}{r}_2)c(\stackrel{}{r}_1\stackrel{}{r}_2;\rho _o)}`$
$`{\displaystyle \frac{𝒫}{2}}{\displaystyle 𝑑\stackrel{}{R}𝑑\stackrel{}{r}_1𝑑\stackrel{}{r}_2\varphi (\stackrel{}{r}_1)\varphi (\stackrel{}{r}_2\stackrel{}{R})\left(\delta (\stackrel{}{R})+\rho _og(\stackrel{}{R})\right)c(\stackrel{}{r}_1\stackrel{}{r}_2;\rho _o)}`$
Here the direct correlation function, $`c(r)`$, carries the liquid state interaction information. For the description of $`c(r)`$ we have used the Percus-Yevick (PY) form with Verlet-Weiss correction as obtained by Henderson and Grundke . This concludes the formulation of the free energy functional used to measure the effects of free volume on the stability of amorphous systems.

## III Stability of the amorphous structure

We now elaborate on the methodology used to investigate the stability of the amorphous structure characterized by a finite vacancy fraction $`\mathrm{\Delta }_v`$. The free-energy functional is numerically evaluated using the expressions (8) to (II The Model Studied) at a given average density $`\rho _o`$. The parameters $`\alpha `$ and $`𝒫`$ are varied simultaneously and two minima are detected in the two dimensional ($`\alpha `$, $`𝒫`$) free energy landscape. One corresponds to the weakly localized state of the amorphous structure since it is found corresponding to low $`\alpha `$ values. The other corresponds to very highly localized structures characterized by large $`\alpha `$ values. We illustrate the minimum on the Free energy landscape with respect to the variational parameter $`𝒫`$ in the Figure 1. The plotted values correspond to the minima in the large $`\alpha `$ space. The minimum value of the Free energy is observed at $`𝒫=0.951`$ at density $`\rho _o=1.12`$, as indicated by the arrow. This figure depicts a considerable increase in the stability of the structure by the induction of free volumes in the structure. The $`\mathrm{\Delta }f`$ values decreases from $`1.64(𝒫=1)`$ to $`0.44`$ due to the presence of free volume in the system. As an inset in this figure, the $`\alpha `$ space minimization is shown at the same density. In Figure 2 we show the corresponding curve for the weakly localized structure at the same density. The $`\alpha `$-space variation is shown as an inset in this figure where each value corresponds to the vacancy concentration obtained as a partial minimum in the $`𝒫`$ space. In this case the optimum value of $`𝒫`$ is obtained at $`0.946`$, corresponding $`\mathrm{\Delta }f`$ value being $`1.325`$. The effect of vacancies on the stability of the weakly localized structure is not as significant as that observed for the highly localized structures. This is because in the weakly localized structures the Gaussian profiles of the particles are already too smeared. The vacancies are not expected to alter the density structure to a large extent and hence the free energy values do not change by a large percentage. Nevertheless, the existence of a minimum in the $`𝒫`$ space at a value lesser than one indicates the thermodynamic preference of the amorphous state for a structure characterized by a homogeneous presence of vacancies and thus establishing the “free-volume” picture of supercooled states from a density functional approach.

The two class of minima observed in amorphous structures represent two different stationary states of the system and the dynamics of the system should show different characteristics around these minima. This is indicated by the two different type of behavior shown by the variation of vacancy concentration with respect to the average density. It follows a linear relation with the average particle density of the highly localized amorphous structure. This is shown in the Figure 3, where the solid line is the linear curve fitting to the variation of $`𝒫`$ versus $`\rho _o`$ for the state corresponding to the high $`\alpha `$ minimum. This predicts that the system will completely freeze, i.e., the free volume concentration will vanish, at packing fraction $`\eta =.62`$. The Figure 4 illustrates the corresponding curve for the weakly localized structure, corresponding to the lower width parameter values. The free volume concentration shows a power law decrease with the increase in the density. The solid line of the curve depicts this functional variation that shows the divergence at $`\eta =.58`$ with an exponent $`.128`$.

In Figure 5 we have shown the variation of the free energy versus the average density for both the highly localized and the weakly localized amorphous structures. The metastability of the highly localized amorphous structure starts coming close to that of the weakly localized state at higher densities due to the induction of free volumes in the structure. The highly localized state starts becoming more stable than the homogenous state after density $`\rho _o=1.12`$. In the similar density structures considered without defects this density has been reported to be $`1.14`$ . The Figure 6 illustrates the variation of the $`\alpha `$ with $`𝒫`$ at density $`\rho _o=1.08`$. This $`\alpha `$ corresponds to the free energy minima at a given value of the defect concentration $`𝒫`$. The monotonic decrease depicts a preference for decreasing localization in the system with decrease in defects concentration $`\mathrm{\Delta }_v`$.

## Discussion

We have investigated various features of the supercooled states by considering the presence of a finite void concentration in an amorphous lattice. In formulating the test density function of the amorphous structure we have basically extended the idea used by Jones and Mohanty , who considered defects in crystal structures. By taking our cue from the Free Volume Theory, we have formulated the corresponding theory in a Density Functional Formalism. Important implications are drawn regarding the structural aspects of such states from this study. The existence of the Free energy minima with respect to $`𝒫`$ demonstrates the thermodynamic preference of the amorphous state for a particular concentration of free volume corresponding to a specific density. That this brings a decrease in the Free energy of the structure shows that the metastability of the supercooled states is dependent upon the “free volume” present in the structure. The weakly localized states which correspond to the free energy minimum found in the region of small width parameter, although, do not gain stability by a significant percentage. This is reasonable since the presence of a small concentration of vacancies does not alter the density structure characterized by wide Gaussians. Thus the free energy does not change much although a clear minimum is observed with respect to the defect parameter $`𝒫`$ at a non-zero value of $`\mathrm{\Delta }_v`$. At higher densities the stability of the highly localized states comes closer to that of the other and thus demonstrating that at higher densities, the supercooled state is likely to be characterized by the more localized density structures. We do not use here any of the more recent density functional theories like the MWDA ( modified weighted density approximation ) . MWDA involves the global mapping of the inhomogeneous structure to a homogenous structure satisfying certain criteria in an effective medium type approximation. Thus it is unsatisfactory for systems characterized by local inhomogeneous effects like the presence of a small concentration of vacancies as is done here. Thus for qualitative investigation purpose, our use of RY functional approach is well justified in this study.

We would also like to indicate here that the major criticism of the results of the similar calculation done for the crystal structure , was the prediction of quite large values of $`\mathrm{\Delta }_v`$. These were not in compliance with the experimental findings which predicted the defect densities in the crystal to be lesser than at least two orders of that predicted by Jones and Mohanty. In the present study, although we have used the mathematical formulation of the density function, its physical interpretation is entirely different. The defects in this study are a measure of the average amount of unoccupied volume present in the amorphous structure. Its concentration is actually indicative of the measure of dynamics possible in the system at a particular density. The vanishing of this free volume concentration is interpreted as a complete freezing of motion in the system and hence the relevance of this concept is not wavered by the critical value of $`\mathrm{\Delta }_v`$ obtained.

Since the free volume concentration is a measure of the transport properties in a system, qualitative indications can also be drawn with respect to the dynamical aspects. This study indicates that the decrease of the free volume can in general be associated with increase in viscosity of the system. The variation of free volume with density/temperature is useful in extracting the temperature dependence of the transport coefficients. We observe two different type of behavior for the two different free energy minima. The highly localized structures display a linear decrease in the free volume concentration with the increase in density. On the other hand, the weakly localized structures, characterized by the low value of the width parameter, show a power-law decrease in the free volume concentration with respect to density. It is well known that a large number of laboratory systems and computer simulations of simple systems show a power law divergence of viscosity with decrease in temperature. It is also worth considering here that the dynamical studies done using the Mode- Coupling Theories  also predict such a relation between the the transport properties and the density for low viscosity hard sphere systems. Thus this result suggests that the low $`\alpha `$ Free energy minima may correspond to the stationary state around which the fluctuations are considered in the dynamical studies coming under the realm of Mode-Coupling Theories. Although this would require further investigation and a definite relation to be established between the free volume concentration and the transport properties.

## Figure Captions

Fig 1: Difference in Free Energy per particle ($`\mathrm{\Delta }f`$) ( in units of $`\beta ^1`$ ) vs. $`𝒫`$ in the large $`\alpha `$ regime ($`\rho _{o}^{}{}_{}{}^{}=1.12`$). In the inset the corresponding minimization is shown in the $`\alpha `$ space.

Fig 2 : Difference in Free Energy per particle ($`\mathrm{\Delta }f`$) ( in units of $`\beta ^1`$ ) vs. $`𝒫`$ in the low $`\alpha `$ regime ($`\rho _{o}^{}{}_{}{}^{}=1.12`$). The inset shows the variation in the $`\alpha `$ space.

Fig 3: Free Volume concentration $`(\mathrm{\Delta }_v)`$ vs. density $`\rho _{o}^{}{}_{}{}^{}`$ for the highly localized amorphous structure. The solid line depicts the linear fit.

Fig 4: Free Volume concentration $`(\mathrm{\Delta }_v)`$ vs. density $`\rho _{o}^{}{}_{}{}^{}`$ for the weakly localized amorphous structure. The solid line depicts the power-law fit.

Fig 5: Difference in Free Energy per particle ($`\mathrm{\Delta }f`$) ( in units of $`\beta ^1`$ ) vs. $`\rho _o`$. The solid line corresponds to the small width parameter, $`\alpha `$, free energy minimum and the dashed line corresponds to the highly localized structure.

Fig 6: Variation of minimum $`\alpha `$ with the corresponding $`𝒫`$ at density $`\rho _o=1.08`$.