Bounds on the soft pomeron intercept

Abstract

The Donnachie-Landshoff fit of total cross sections has now become a standard reference for models of total, elastic and diffractive cross-sections. Adopting their philosophy that simple-pole exchanges should account for all data to present energies, we assess the uncertainties on their fits. Our best estimate for the pomeron intercept is 1.096+0.012-0.009, but several models have a good X2 for intercepts in the range [1.07,1.11]. © 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.