Renormalization of hadronic diffraction and the structure of the pomeron

A phenomenological renormalization scheme for hadronic diffraction is proposed, which unitarizes the triple-pomeron Regge amplitude while preserving its M2 and t dependence. Predictions for pppp single diffractive, double diffractive and double pomeron exchange cross sections are presented and compared with experimental results. A new interpretation of hard and deep inelastic diffractive data emerges in which the momentum sum rule is obeyed by the constituents of a pomeron described as a mixture of quark and gluon color singlets in a ratio dictated by asymptopia.