Constituent approach to total hadronic cross sections and high-energy elastic scattering

Abstract

Total hadronic cross sections are analyzed in terms of the relative influence of the hadron geometry and of the interaction dynamics between the constituents, by means of a simple analytic model. It is shown that the interaction dynamics plays a dominant role. A numerical approach to the problem confirms this conclusion. It also allows us to perform a phenomenological analysis of existing data and to predict hyperon–nucleon differential cross sections on the basis of this analysis.