Some applications of f/P universality to inclusive processes in the triple-Regge region

The notion of f/P universality is shown to hold in a broad class of models even when an elementary version of the f-coupled Pomeron does not. It is then applied to triple-Regge vertices (ijk). At the same time we invoke exchange degeneracy, but only when k is not-equal to P (the case k = P was recently shown to lead to inconsistencies, at least if applied exactly). Given the f and P Regge residues for a two-body process such as pp → pp, we can then relate PPR, RRP, RRR, and RPP to PPP (where R = f, ω) and ππR to ππP, which can be calculated from the πp asymptotic cross section; the cross terms RPR and PRR drop out, but the RPP and PRP must be kept. This leaves only PPP to be actually fitted to the data. It serves mainly to fix the overall scale of the cross sections at a given t. The shapes of the missing-mass distributions and the deviations from scaling are all predicted in our scheme. Within the rather large theoretical (input) uncertainties which are involved, the results are in reasonable agreement with both high and low missing-mass data (the latter via a finite-mass sum rule). Finally, if we combine our approach with factorization, we can predict the cross sections for processes like pπ- → pX even in a region where nonscaling terms are important