Elastic and diffractive scattering at the LHC.

Abstract Inspired by the new TOTEM data on elastic pp scattering at 13 TeV, we study the possibility to describe all the diffractive collider data (σ tot , d σ el / d t , ρ ≡ Re A / Im A , σ low M D) in a wide interval of energy (0.0625 to 13 TeV) in the framework of a two-channel eikonal model. We show that a satisfactory description can be achieved without an odd-signature (Odderon) exchange contribution. We consider the possible role of the QCD Odderon which may improve the description of ρ and discuss the importance of the odd-signature term if the amplitude were to exceed the black disc limit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]