Central soft production of hadrons in $pp$ collisions

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.