Central soft production of hadrons in $pp$ collisions

TL;DR

This paper reviews how Regge theory successfully describes high-energy soft scattering phenomena in proton-proton collisions, including recent LHC data and prospects for understanding central production.

Contribution

It extends the application of Regge theory to central production in $pp$ collisions and discusses the implications of recent experimental data for this theoretical framework.

Findings

Regge theory continues to describe elastic scattering at LHC energies

Preliminary diffraction dissociation data support existing models

Central production testing of Regge concepts is now feasible

Abstract

The high-energy behaviour of soft scattering observables such as total cross sections, elastic scattering at small momentum transfer, diffractive dissociation and central production have been described successfully in the context of Regge theory, with the same basic structure holding as energies have increased. For elastic scattering and diffraction dissociation the defining energies were those of the ISR, the $Sp\bar{p}S$ collider and the Tevatron. The elastic scattering data from the LHC demonstrate the continuing applicability of Regge theory. Preliminary data on diffraction dissociation promise to add to our understanding and now, for the first time, we can expect to test fully these concepts in central production. Although the latter is the principal objective of this discussion, understanding the first two is an essential prerequisite as they define the formalism and establish parameters.