On pomeron loop effects in deep inelastic scattering

Pomeron loop effects (gluon number fluctuations) on deep inelastic scattering (DIS) in the fixed coupling case are studied. We show that the description of the HERA data for the inclusive structure function $F_2(x,Q^2)$ for $x\le {10}^{-2}$ and $0.045\le Q^2\le 45Ge{V}^2$ is improved once pomeron loop effects are included.