Diffractive production off nuclei-shadow of hadronic bremsstrahlung

Diffractive production on nuclei is calculated using as an input a specific model for diffractive production on nucleons. In this model diffractive production is described as a shadow of non-diffractive multiple production of particles. The mechanism for non-diffractive production is taken to be hadronic bremsstrahlung of independently produced clusters. It is shown that such a model naturally explains the strikingly simple pattern of absorption observed in coherent production on nuclei. Possible generalizations of these results are indicated. (author)