Optical model for diffraction dissociation

The "Deck effect" is generalized to include multiple scattering, which should be important in diffractive dissociation on nuclear targets. A simple and intuitively appealing optical (eikonal) representation is given. On the basis of this representation, it is conjectured that form-factor effects should be included as a function of the distance off the energy shell in old-fashioned perturbation theory, at "infinite" momentum, rather than as a function of the distance off the mass shell, as in the usual double-Regge models. Ways to test this conjecture are discussed, and a procedure is given for including absorptive effects in 2 → 3 processes.