On the possibility of gluon number fluctuations in diffractive deep inelastic scattering data with impact parameter

Abstract

A global analysis of the latest diffractive deep inelastic scattering (DIS) data with gluon number fluctuations and impact parameter is performed. The impact parameter is introduced into the scattering amplitude by saturation scale with a Gaussian b-dependence. The results show that the description of the diffractive DIS data is improved once the gluon number fluctuations and impact parameter are included, with [Formula: see text]/d.o.f = 0.878, [Formula: see text]/d.o.f = 0.928 and [Formula: see text]/d.o.f = 0.897 in different sets of free parameters. Moreover, we find that the impact parameter ([Formula: see text] 0.1) is possibly compressed by the gluon number fluctuations, which leads to the value of saturation exponent returning to [Formula: see text] 0.2. This outcome is compatible with the prediction that the saturation exponent is dominated by the fluctuations at sufficiently high energy, which may indicate the possibility of gluon number fluctuations in diffractive DIS data.