Proton Internal Pressure in $pp$ and $\bar{p}p$ Elastic Scattering

Abstract

In this work, one proposes the use of a damped confinement potential to mimic the proton internal energy. The internal pressure is calculated taking into account the occurrence of a phase transition in the $pp$ and $\bar{p}p$ total cross section. The model predicts the inversion of the positive and negative pressure regions depending on the squared energy $s_0$, where the total cross section achieves its minimum value. Considering energies below the phase transition the expected results are in accordance with the recent proton internal pressure measurement. For energies above $s_0$, the model predicts a negative pressure region near the center of the hadron surrounded by a positive pressure region.