Electroproduction and Photoproduction—Some Gross Characteristics at Extreme Energies

Abstract

Certain gross characteristics of inelastic lepton-hadron and photon-hadron collisions at extreme energies are correlated and discussed. It is argued that the total inelastic electron-proton cross section, for example, increases like ${\mathrm{ln}}^{2}E$ as $E\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}$, where $E$ is the incident electron energy, if the total photoabsorption cross section tends to a nonzero limit at high energies. The behavior of partial cross sections and average multiplicities for a given secondary at extreme energies for the two kinds of processes are also discussed. In particular, it is shown that if the behavior of the average multiplicity of any given hadron with respect to the incident energy is the same in electroproduction and photoproduction processes, it could only be logarithmic (or powers thereof). Implications of the various results in the context of certain existing models are also discussed.