Simple Model for Total Cross Sections

Abstract

Adopting the philosophy à la Donnachie and Landshoff that simple pole exchanges could account for all data of total, elastic and diffractive scattering cross sections to present energies, we show that such simple pole fits to $pp$ and ${\bar p}p$ total cross sections are indeed very successful. We assess the uncertainties of the various parameters by making careful statistical analysis of the data and their correlations. In particular, the pomeron intercept which controls total cross sections and the real part of the elastic amplitude at high energies is shown to lie anywhere between 1.07 and 1.11, with a preferred value 1.096.