Pomeron intercept and slope: A QCD connection

The ratio r of intercept to slope of the Pomeron trajectory is derived in a QCD inspired parton model approach to diffraction based on a (re)normalization of the pp/p̄p single-diffractive cross section designed to enforce unitarity constraints by eliminating overlapping rapidity gaps. As the collision energy increases, the renormalized single-diffractive cross section tends to a constant which depends on the ratio r. Identifying the constant as the σₒ of the total cross section, σ=σₒ·sϵ, yields the ratio r in terms of measured parameters that can be phenomenologically expressed in terms of the pion mass and QCD color factors. The result agrees with the measured value of r.