Toward the non-perturbative description of high energy processes

General implications of the existence of non-perturbative scales smaller th an 1 fm and the hadronic sub-structure for high energy processes are discus sed. We propose that the observed dependence of the (q) over bar q dipole c ross section with nucleon sigma(b,x) on the dipole size b is consistent wit h an instanton-based substructure. Then we use instanton dynamics to make t he Kharzeev-Levin pomeron model [D. Kharzeev, E. Levin, BNL-NT-99-8, Decemb er 1999, hep-ph/9912216]. We fix the values for the gluon-to-hadron couplin g constants including two scalar resonances: the sigma (scalar pi pi) and t he scalar glueball G(0). These channels are special because the instanton-i nduced attractive interaction makes these hadrons unusually small in size, increasing their coupling constants. As the pomeron is a small-size object by itself, these resonances should have a a special role in its dynamics. W e conclude that the non-perturbative part of the scalar contribution to the soft pomeron intercept is Delta = 0.05 +/- 0.015, with comparable contribu tions from both sigma and G(0). (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.