Do we understand near-forward elastic scattering up to TeV energies?

TL;DR

This paper reviews the development and validation of a phenomenological model for high-energy proton-proton and antiproton-proton elastic scattering, comparing model predictions with experimental data up to TeV energies.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive summary of the model's formulation, parameter adjustments, and its predictive success over thirty years of experimental data.

Findings

Model accurately predicts elastic scattering cross sections up to TeV energies.

Parameters for proton-proton and antiproton-proton interactions have remained stable since 1984.

The model's predictions align well with experimental results across decades.

Abstract

In 1970, on purely theoretical grounds, all total hadronic total cross sections were predicted to increase without limit for higher and higher energies. This was contrary to the conventional belief at that time. In 1978, an accurate phenomenological model was formulated for the case of proton-proton and antiproton-proton interactions. The parameters for this model were slightly improved in 1984 using the additional available experimental data. Since then, for thirty years these parameters have not changed. This development, including especially the difficult task of formulating this phenomenological model and the comparison of the predictions of this model with later experimental results, is summarized.