Connection between Inelastic Proton-proton Reactions and Deep Inelastic Electron Scattering*

Following the idea that the electromagnetic and nuclear distributions behave similarly for large momentum transfers (as introduced by Wu and Yang and further developed by A.barbanel, Drell and Gilman) we examine the possibility of relating the deep inelastic electron scattering to large momentum transfer and high energy inelastic protonproton reactions. (Submitted to Phys. Rev. Letters) * Work supported by the U. S. Atomic Energy Commission, t J. S. Guggenheim Fellow. A remarkable property of the elastic pp scattering is that in the large momentum transfer region the differential cross section behaves similarly to the fourth power of the electron scattering form factor, 1,2 . l.e., where GM(t) is the proton momentp = 2.79 at t= 0, magnetic form factor normalized to the total magnetic t the momentum transfer, and M the nucleon mass. 1 A.s an explanation of this fact Wu and Yanghave proposed that in the large t region the nuclear matter distribution is essentially the same as the electromagnetic distribution and that in elastic p-p scattering one has the overlap of the two proton distributions giving rise to G&(t) in the scattering matrix element. Abarbanel, Drell and Gilman’ have suggested an even more specific mechanism for this large t region where the scattering is deemed a consequence of an effective local four-fermion vector (or axial vector) coupling with the universal form factor Should these descriptions of the elastic p-p scattering be valid then we may easily extend their scope to make a direct comparison between the deep inelastic electron scattering and the inelastic p-p scattering which essentially amounts to replacing each elastic factor G2,(t) by the inelastic strength factor uW2. The process we envision is the reaction pl+ p2 r, + r, (2) where the hadronic state rl is a collection of particles that kinematically can be associated with PI and similarly the hadronic state r2 can be associated kinematically with P2 as illustrated in Fig. la. Further the momentum transfer l(Pl-Pj J2= t is to be outside the diffraction region and reasonably large,