Saturation effects in pp scattering in the impact-parameter representation

Abstract

The impact of unitarity is considered in different approaches to saturation in impact-parameter space. The energy and momentum-transfer dependence of the total and differential cross sections and of the ratio of the real to imaginary parts of the scattering amplitude are obtained in a model that includes soft and hard pomeron contributions, coupled to hadrons via the electromagnetic form factor. It is shown that the hard pomeron may significantly contribute to soft physics at the LHC. A similar conclusion can also be reached in the framework of non-linear approaches to unitarisation of the BFKL pomeron.