Elastic and diffractive scattering at the LHC

TL;DR

This paper models elastic and diffractive scattering at the LHC using a two-channel eikonal approach, successfully fitting data from 0.0625 to 13 TeV without requiring Odderon exchange, and discusses the potential role of the QCD Odderon.

Contribution

It introduces a two-channel eikonal model that describes a wide range of diffractive scattering data without odd-signature contributions.

Findings

Achieves satisfactory data description without Odderon exchange.

Highlights the potential role of the QCD Odderon in improving the fit.

Discusses the significance of the odd-signature term near the black disc limit.

Abstract

Inspired by the new TOTEM data on elastic $pp$ scattering at 13 TeV, we study the possibility to describe all the diffractive collider data ($\sigma_{\rm tot}, d\sigma_{\rm el}/dt$, $\rho\equiv$Re$A$/Im$A$, \sd) in a wide interval of energy (0.0625 to 13 TeV) in the framework of a two-channel eikonal model. We show that a satisfactory description can be achieved without an odd-signature (Odderon) exchange contribution. We consider the possible role of the QCD Odderon which may improve the description of $\rho$ and discuss the importance of the odd-signature term if the amplitude were to exceed the black disc limit.