Observation of Odderon effects at LHC energies: a real extended Bialas-Bzdak model study

The unitarily extended Bialas-Bzdak model of elastic proton-proton scattering is applied, without modifications, to describe the differential cross-section of elastic proton-antiproton collisions in the TeV energy range, and to extrapolate these differential cross-sections to LHC energies. In this model-dependent study we find that the differential cross-sections of elastic proton-proton collision data at 2.76 and 7 TeV energies differ significantly from the differential cross-section of elastic proton-antiproton collisions extrapolated to these energies. The elastic proton-proton differential cross-sections, extrapolated to 1.96 TeV energy with the help of this extended Bialas-Bzdak model do not differ significantly from that of elastic proton-antiproton collisions, within the theoretical errors of the extrapolation. Taken together these results provide a model-dependent, but statistically significant evidence for a crossing-odd component of the elastic scattering amplitude at the at least 7.08 sigma level. From the reconstructed Odderon and Pomeron amplitudes, we determine the s dependence of the corresponding total and differential cross-sections.

Automated summary

The study applies the unitarily extended Bialas-Bzdak model to describe the differential cross-section of elastic proton-proton and proton-antiproton collisions, finding significant differences between the two at different energies. The results provide statistically significant evidence for a crossing-odd component of the elastic scattering amplitude at at least the 7.08 sigma level.