Fresh look at experimental evidence for odderon exchange

Physics Letters B, vol. 839, pp. 137826

Abstract

Theory suggests that in high-energy elastic hadron+hadron scattering, t-channel exchange of a family of colourless crossing-odd states – the odderon – may generate differences between pp¯ and pp cross-sections in the neighbourhood of the diffractive minimum. Using a mathematical approach based on interpolation via continued fractions enhanced by statistical sampling, we develop robust comparisons between pp¯ elastic differential cross-sections measured at √s=1.96 TeV by the D0 Collaboration at the Tevatron and function-form-unbiased extrapolations to this energy of kindred pp measurements at √s/TeV=2.76,7,8,13 by the TOTEM Collaboration at the LHC and a combination of these data with earlier cross-section measurements at √s/GeV=23.5,30.7,44.7,52.8,62.5 made at the intersecting storage rings. Focusing on a domain that straddles the diffractive minimum in the pp¯ and pp cross-sections, we find that these two cross-sections differ at the (2.2−2.6)σ level; hence, supply evidence with this level of significance for the existence of the odderon. If combined with evidence obtained through different experiment-theory comparisons, whose significance is reported to lie in the range (3.4−4.6)σ, one arrives at a (4.0−5.2)σ signal for the odderon.

Authors 5

1. Zhu-Fang Cui

   Nanjing University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute for Nonperturbative Physics, Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210093, China

   School of Physics, Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210093, China

2. Daniele Binosi

   European Centre for Theoretical Studies in Nuclear Physics and Related Areas

   Affiliation as printed

   European Centre for Theoretical Studies in Nuclear Physics and Related Areas, Villa Tambosi, Strada delle Tabarelle 286, I-38123 Villazzano, TN, Italy

3. Craig D. Roberts corresponding

   Nanjing University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute for Nonperturbative Physics, Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210093, China

   School of Physics, Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210093, China

4. Sebastian M. Schmidt Aachen III. Physikalisches Institut B

   Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf · RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Dresden D-01314, Germany

   RWTH Aachen University, III. Physikalisches Institut B, Aachen D-52074, Germany

5. D.N. Triantafyllopoulos

   European Centre for Theoretical Studies in Nuclear Physics and Related Areas

   Affiliation as printed

   European Centre for Theoretical Studies in Nuclear Physics and Related Areas, Villa Tambosi, Strada delle Tabarelle 286, I-38123 Villazzano, TN, Italy