Experimental Results on Ultrahigh-Energy Cosmic Rays and Asymptotic Behavior of the Total Cross Section for Nucleon–Nucleon Interaction

Abstract

Results obtained by studying the energy dependence of the total cross section for nucleon–nucleon interaction are presented. The analytic parametrization proposed within axiomatic quantum field theory describes quantitatively a unified set of experimental data on proton–proton and antiproton–proton scattering. At collision energies above 86 GeV, the parameter values fitted to subsets of all available data and accelerator data alone were found to deviate from the respective asymptotic values. This indicates that the Froissart–Martin limit for the total cross section has not yet been reached in the case of these subsets. An approximation of the total nucleon–nucleon cross section measured in cosmic rays leads for some parameters to fitted values that, within 1.0 to 1.3 standard deviations, agree with the respective asymptotic values. This resultmay be viewed as an indication of the beginning of the asymptotic functional behavior of the total nucleon–nucleon cross section measured in cosmic rays of ultrahigh energy O(100 TeV). This is confirmed within the color glass condensate approach.