Hadronic Scaling in the Scattering of Composite Systems

We discuss the problem of limiting behavior (scaling) in the inclusive scattering from composite systems when the inclusive scattering of their constituents is known to scale. In particular, the composite system we study is the nucleus, and the scattering formalism is a multiparticle form of the Glauber theory. The effects we study come from inelastic collisions of independent products of earlier inelastic collisions within a given nucleus, i.e., intranuclear cascading. At sufficiently high energies the distribution from nuclear scattering scales; the scaling function is very closely related to the scaling function for scattering from nucleons. The approach to scaling depends logarithmically on $s$ but also on scattering properties of the constituent nucleons and on properties of the composite nucleus. When these factors are combined we are presented with a rather rich picture of the approach to the scaling limit. We present numerical calculations to illuminate this picture, and discuss possible experimental tests which can be performed with nuclear targets. We speculate on the application of our ideas to hadronic systems themselves and on the features of hadronic systems they may explain.