Charm and the rise of the pp-bar total cross section.

Abstract

We give a detailed description of the pp\ifmmode\bar\else\textasciimacron\fi{} forward amplitude through CERN SPS collider energies, using the flavored Pomeron model as an effective parametrization of nonperturbative QCD. We show that the rise in the total cross section between CERN ISR and SPS collider energies is consistent with the onset of charmed-particle production up to the level of a few millibarns, along with other processes, and in agreement with available data. In contrast with our estimates of charm production, perturbative QCD charm-production calculations are well below the data. We give estimates of the p\ifmmode\bar\else\textasciimacron\fi{} and ${K}^{\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}}$ multiplicities at SPS collider energies. We also present a simplified version of the flavoring model in order to facilitate comparisons between it and other parametrizations.