Evidence for ξ- and t-dependent damping of the Pomeron flux in the proton

We show that a triple-Regge parametrization of inclusive single diffraction agrees with the data in the following two domains: (a) ξ>0.03 at all t, (b) |t|>1 GeV2 at all ξ. Since the triple-Regge parametrization fails when applied to the full ξ–t range of the total single-diffractive cross section, we conclude that damping occurs only at low-ξ and low-|t|. We give a (“toy”) parametrization of the damping factor, D(ξ), valid at low-|t|, which describes the dσsdtotal/dt data at the ISR and roughly accounts for the observed s-dependence of σsdtotal up to Tevatron energies. However, an effective damping factor calculated for the CDF fitted function for d2σsdtotal/dξdt at s=1800 GeV and |t|=0.05 GeV2, suggests that, at fixed-ξ, damping increases as s increases.