Why more hadronlike photons produce less particles on nuclear targets

In hadron-nucleus interactions, the stronger is nuclear shadowing in the total cross section the higher is the multiplicity of secondary hadrons. In deep inelastic scattering, nuclear shadowing at small x is associated with the hadronlike behaviour of photons as contrasted to the pointlike behaviour in the non-shadowing region of large x. In this paper we predict smaller mean multiplicity of secondary hadrons, and weaker fragmentation of the target nucleus, in deep inelastic leptoptoproduction on nuclei in the shadowing region of small x as compared to the non-shadowing region of large x. This paradoxial conclusion has its origin in nuclear enhancement of the coherent diffraction dissociation of photons. We present numerical predictions for multiproduction in µXe interactions studied by the Fermilab E665 collaboration.