FORWARD PHYSICS AT THE LHC: ELASTIC SCATTERING

Abstract

The following effects in the nearly forward ("soft") region of the LHC are proposed to be investigated: • At small |t| the fine structure of the cone (Pomeron) should be scrutinized: (a) a break of the cone near t ≈ -0.1 GeV 2 , due to the two-pion threshold, and required by t-channel unitarity, and (b) possible small-period oscillations between t = 0 and the dip region. • In measuring the elastic pp scattering and total pp cross-section at the LHC, the experimentalists are urged to treat the total cross-section σ t , the ratio ρ of real to imaginary part of the forward scattering amplitude, the forward slope B and the luminosity [Formula: see text] as free parameters, and to publish model-independent results on dN/dt. • Of extreme interest are the details of the expected diffraction minimum in the differential cross-section. Its position, expected in the interval 0.4 < -t < 1 GeV 2 at the level of about 10 -2 mb · GeV -2 –10 -1 mb · GeV -2 , cannot be predicted unambiguously, and its depth, i.e. the ratio of dσ/dt at the minimum to that at the subsequent maximum (about -t = 5 GeV 2 , which is about 5) is of great importance. • The expected slow-down with increasing |t| of the shrinkage of the second cone (beyond the dip-bump), together with the transition from an exponential to a power decrease in -t, will be indicative of the transition from "soft" to "hard" physics. Explicit models are proposed to help in quantifying this transition. • In a number of papers a limiting behavior, or saturation of the black disk limit (BDL), was predicted. This controversial phenomenon shows that the BDL may not be the ultimate limit, instead a transition from shadow to antishadow scattering may by typical of the LHC energy scale.