THE SPIN CONTRIBUTION TO THE pp-TOTAL CROSS-SECTION AT HIGH ENERGY

Abstract

The experimental data on the pp-total cross-sections including the spin-dependent parts are analyzed with the goal to determine the contribution of spin interactions at high energies. Based on the Regge model with cuts, the energy dependencies of such contributions are estimated for two spin-dependent terms: (1) the total spin dependent term, σ1 and (2) the spin projection dependent term, σ2. The estimates show that their contributions to the unpolarized total cross section, σ0, decrease with energy from several % around 2 GeV/c to 10-2% around 200 GeV/c. The assumption σ1= -σ2 does not seem to be correct, while the hypothesis 3 σ1=-σ2 is more preferable, especially in the measured energy interval 2-6 GeV. There is a clear indication that the spin effects are sensitive to the pomeron intercept at - t=0 (GeV/c)2. In order to pin down such effects the spin dependent total cross-sections must be measured with precisions better than 10 μb at 200 GeV/c.