Double Parton Splitting Diagrams and Interference and Correlation Effects in Double Parton Scattering

Abstract

We discuss two topics in double parton scattering (DPS) theory that have been the subject of recent research interest. First, the role of `double parton splitting' diagrams in DPS is discussed. We outline the `double PDF' description of DPS, which was introduced a number of years ago. It is pointed out that under this framework, a certain structure is anticipated in the cross section expression for a `double perturbative splitting' diagram, which in the framework is regarded as DPS. We show that although this structure does indeed appear in the `double perturbative splitting' diagrams, there is no natural reason to demarcate specifically this part of the graph as the DPS part, and indeed there is no natural part of these diagrams that can be regarded as DPS. There therefore appear to be some unsatisfactory features in the double PDF approach to describing DPS. The second issue we discuss is that of interference and correlated parton contributions to proton-proton DPS. We explain in simple terms why there can be such contributions to the DPS cross section. The potential existence of such contributions was pointed out long ago by Mekhfi and more recently by Diehl and Schafer, but has been largely ignored in phenomenological investigations of DPS.