Diffractive production at collider energies and factorization

One of the more interesting developments from recent collider experiments i s the finding that hadronic total cross sections as well as elastic cross s ections can be described by the exchange of a "soft Pomeron" pole in the ne ar-forward limit. The most important consequence of Pomeron being a pole is the factorization property. However, due to Pomeron intercept being greate r than 1, the extrapolated single-diffraction dissociation cross section ba sed on a classical triple-Pomeron formula is too large leading to a potenti al unitarity violation at Tevatron energies, which has been referred to as "Dino's paradox". We review the resolution which involves a proper implemen tation of final-state screening correction, with "flavoring" for Pomeron as the primary dynamical mechanism for setting the relevant energy scale. In this approach, factorization remains intact, and unambiguous predictions fo r double-Pomeron exchange, doubly diffraction dissociation, etc., both at T evatron and at LHC energies, can be made. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. Al l rights reserved.