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Published: 1990

Total Pages: 11

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This is a brief review of the progress in the understanding, during the past twenty years, of hadronic elastic scattering near the forward direction at high energies. On the basis of quantum gauge field theories, the Pomeron is found to be a branch cut above 1. Using the physical picture that this result implies, phenomenology for proton-proton and antiproton-proton elastic scattering is constructed. Two noteworthy features are that, at high energies, both the total cross section and the ratio of the integrated elastic cross section to the total cross section to the total cross section are increasing functions of the center-of-mass energy. Detailed predictions are given for the elastic differential cross sections, Coulomb interference and the ratios of the real to imaginary parts of the forward amplitudes. These predictions have been extensively and accurately confirmed by experiments, and have also been given both for future experiments on existing accelerators and for experiments on future accelerators. 14 refs., 2 figs.