Predicting Proton-Air Cross Sections at sqrt s ~30 TeV, using Accelerator and Cosmic Ray Data

Abstract

We use the high energy predictions of a QCD-inspired parameterization of all accelerator data on forward proton-proton and antiproton-proton scattering amplitudes, along with Glauber theory, to predict proton-air cross sections at energies near \sqrt s \approx 30 TeV. The parameterization of the proton-proton cross section incorporates analyticity and unitarity, and demands that the asymptotic proton is a black disk of soft partons. By comparing with the p-air cosmic ray measurements, our analysis results in a constraint on the inclusive particle production cross section.

9 pages, Revtex, uses epsfig.sty, 5 postscript figures. Minor text revisions. Systematic errors in k included, procedure for extracting k clarified. Previously undefined symbols now defined

References in corpus (2)

• Photon-Proton and Photon-Photon Scattering from Nucleon-Nucleon Forward Amplitudes
• Proton-proton Cross Section at sqrt(s) \sim 30 TeV

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