Unusual effects of diffraction dissociation for multiproduction in deep inelastic scattering on nuclei

Abstract

In hadron-nucleus interactions, the stronger is nuclear shadowing in the total cross section the higher is the multiplicity of secondary hadrons. In deep inelastic scattering nuclear shadowing at smallx is associated with the hadronlike behaviour of photons as contrasted to the pointlike behaviour in the non-shadowing region of largex. In this paper we predict dilution of multiproduction of secondary hadrons, and weaker fragmentation of the target nucleus, in deep inelastic leptoptoproduction on nuclei in the shadowing region of smallx as compared to the non-shadowing region of largex. This paradoxial conclusion has its origin in nuclear enhancement of the coherent diffraction dissociation of photons which affects multiproduction in the shadowing region and does not contribute in the non-shadowing region. We present numerical predictions for multiproduction in theμXe interactions studied by the Fermilab E665 collaboration.