The ratio $r$ of intercept to slope of the Pomeron trajectory is derived in a QCD inspired parton model approach to diffraction based on a (re)normalization of the $pp/\overline{p}p$ single-diffractive cross section designed to enforce unitarity constraints by eliminating overlapping rapidity gaps. As the collision energy increases, the renormalized single-diffractive cross section tends to a constant which depends on the ratio $r$. Identifying the constant as the ${\sigma }_o$ of the total cross section, $\sigma ={\sigma }_o·s^{ϵ}$, yields the ratio $r$ in terms of measured parameters that can be phenomenologically expressed in terms of the pion mass and QCD color factors. The result agrees with the measured value of $r$.

• Received 30 October 2009
• Corrected 4 January 2010

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.80.111901