Rapidity Gaps in Deep Inelastic Scattering

Abstract

A simple semiquantitative picture of diffractive electroproduction is described. Although the diffractive component of $F_2$ is approximately independent of $Q^2$ and $W^2$, this mechanism is "soft," i.e. it depends upon large-distance physics and is not readily describable within perturbative QCD.

LaTex 14 pages, 3 figures. To obtain a copy, send e-mail to [email protected]