Structures in the diffraction cone: the "break" and "dip" in high-energy proton-proton scattering

Abstract

Anticipating forthcoming publication by the TOTEM collaboration of low-t elastic scattering data at \sqrt{s}=13 and 2.76 TeV, hereby we emphasize the correlation between two prominent structures seen upon the otherwise exponential diffraction cone, namely a "break" staying fixed around t=-0.1 GeV^2 and a dip moving with energy logarithmically inwards; while at the ISR the two structures are separated by a distance of about 1~GeV^2, at the LHC the dip comes close to the periphery of the "break", thus affecting its parametrization. An unbiased disentangling and identification of the break at the LHC should account for this correlation.