Semi-transparent hadrons from multi-channel absorption effects

The absorption structure of diffractive dissociation is analyzed and the elastic and inelastic processes discussed simultaneously. This approach is motivated by their close interdependence and mutual influence. It is shown that the results differ significantly from the standard picture of elastic scattering. In particular, protons are shown to have very rich internal structure coupling both to 'black' and 'transparent' diffractive scattering eigenstates. Proton matter distribution may well be very different from that suggested by the analysis of Chou and Yang (1968). Finally, the indicated asymptotic behaviour is that of a 'grey' instead of a 'black' disc limit. (18 refs).