Evidence of Odderon-exchange from scaling properties of elastic scattering at TeV energies

Abstract

We study the scaling properties of the differential cross section of elastic proton-proton ($pp$) and proton-antiproton ($p\bar{p}$) collisions at high energies. We introduce a new scaling function, that scales -- within the experimental errors -- all the ISR data on elastic $pp$ scattering from $\sqrt{s}=23.5$ to $62.5$ GeV to the same universal curve. We explore the scaling properties of the differential cross-sections of the elastic $pp$ and $p\bar{p}$ collisions in a limited TeV energy range. Rescaling the TOTEM $pp$ data from $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV to $2.76$ and $1.96$ TeV, and comparing it to D0 $p\bar{p}$ data at $1.96$ TeV, our results provide an evidence for a $t$-channel Odderon exchange at TeV energies, with a significance of at least 6.26$\ddot{I}ƒ$. We complete this work with a model-dependent evaluation of the domain of validity of the new scaling and its violations. We find that the $H(x)$ scaling is valid, model dependently, within $200$ GeV $\le \sqrt{s}\le$ $8$ TeV, with a $-t$ range gradually narrowing with decreasing colliding energies.

Accepted in EPJ C, with typos fixed, reorganized institutions updated, Appendix A, B, C, D, E added, 60 pages, 29 figures, 13 tables, Odderon significance: 6.26 sigma, conclusions unchanged