Proton-proton cross sections from 1 to 100 TeV

Abstract

Recent direct measurements of the energy spectrum of protons in primary cosmic rays by the Japanese-American cooperative emulsion-chamber experiment remove the most important uncertainty in deriving proton-proton total cross sections from cosmic-ray data. The data are reanalyzed and it is shown that ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{\mathrm{pp}}$ is approximately equal to ${\ensuremath{\sigma}}_{\overline{p}p}$ at 50 TeV. The $\mathrm{pp}$ cross section is shown to be free to a large extent of systematic uncertainties.