Excitation function of elastic pp scattering from a unitarily extended Bialas–Bzdak model

Abstract

The Bialas–Bzdak model of elastic proton–proton scattering assumes a purely imaginary forward scattering amplitude, which consequently vanishes at the diffractive minima. We extended the model to arbitrarily large real parts in a way that constraints from unitarity are satisfied. The resulting model is able to describe elastic pp scattering not only at the lower ISR energies but also at [Formula: see text] in a statistically acceptable manner, both in the diffractive cone and in the region of the first diffractive minimum. The total cross-section as well as the differential cross-section of elastic proton–proton scattering is predicted for the future LHC energies of [Formula: see text], 14, 15 TeV and also to 28 TeV. A nontrivial, significantly nonexponential feature of the differential cross-section of elastic proton–proton scattering is analyzed and the excitation function of the nonexponential behavior is predicted. The excitation function of the shadow profiles is discussed and related to saturation at small impact parameters.