  We show that high energy scattering is a statistical process essentially
similar to reaction-diffusion in a system made of a finite number of particles.
The Balitsky-JIMWLK equations correspond to the time evolution law for the
particle density. The squared strong coupling constant plays the role of the
minimum particle density. Discreteness is related to the finite number of
partons one may observe in a given event and has a sizeable effect on physical
observables. Using general tools developed recently in statistical physics, we
derive the universal terms in the rapidity dependence of the saturation scale
and the scaling form of the amplitude, which come as the leading terms in a
large rapidity and small coupling expansion.
