The Pomeron and hadrons through infra-red analysis of QCD

Infra-red analysis of QCD in the Regge limit is argued to lead to confinement with chiral symmetry breaking. The resulting Pomeron depends strongly on the centre of the gauge group with SU(3) colour producing uniquely the experimentally observed even signature, factorizing, Pomeron. The critical Pomeron (asymptotic rising cross-sections) occurs when QCD is saturated with quarks. New calculations are reviewed showing strong evidence for the emergence of the critical Pomeron diffraction peak at present accelerator energies. This leads to exciting predictions for diffraction scattering at p antip collider energies which could become the most precise experimental confirmation of QCD