Diffraction from the Deep Sea

Experimental results on soft and hard diffractive processes obtained by the CDF Collaboration in p(bar)p interactions are examined with emphasis on regularities that point to QCD aspects of hadronic diffraction. Data are interpreted in a phenomenological approach in which diffractive cross sections are related to the underlying inclusive parton distribution functions of the nucleon. In this approach, diffraction appears to be mediated by the exchange of low-x partons from the quark/gluon sea of the interacting nucleons subject to color constraints. (author)