Survival probability of large rapidity gaps in (p)over-barp, pp, gamma p, and gamma gamma collisions - art. no. 114004

Using an eikonal analysis, we simultaneously fit a QCD-inspired parametriza tion of all accelerator data on forward proton-proton and antiproton-proton scattering amplitudes, together with cosmic ray data (using Glauber theory ), to predict proton-air and proton-proton cross sections at energies near roots approximate to 30 TeV. The p-air cosmic ray measurements greatly redu ce the errors in the high energy proton-proton and proton-air cross section predictions-in turn, greatly reducing the errors in the fit parameters. Fr om this analysis, we can then compute the survival probability of rapidity gaps in high energy (p) over barp and pp collisions, with high accuracy in a quasi-model-free environment. Using an additive quark model and vector me son dominance, we note that the survival probabilities are identical, at th e same energy, for gammap and gamma gamma collisions, as well as for nucleo n-nucleon collisions. Significantly, our analysis finds large values for ga p survival probabilities: approximate to 30% at roots = 200 GeV, approximat e to 21% at roots = 1.8 TeV and approximate to 13% at roots = 14 TeV.