A model for soft high-energy scattering: Tensor pomeron and vector odderon

A model for soft high-energy scattering is developed. The model is formulated in terms of effective propagators and vertices for the exchange objects: the pomeron, the odderon, and the reggeons. The vertices are required to respect standard rules of QFT. The propagators are constructed taking into account the crossing properties of amplitudes in QFT and the power-law ansatze from the Regge model. We propose to describe the pomeron as an effective spin 2 exchange. This tensor pomeron gives, at high energies, the same results for the pp and p (p) over bar elastic amplitudes as the standard Donnachie-Landshoff pomeron. But with our tensor pomeron it is much more natural to write down effective vertices of all kinds which respect the rules of QFT. This is particularly clear for the coupling of the pomeron to particles carrying spin, for instance vector mesons. We describe the odderon as an effective vector exchange. We emphasise that with a tensor pomeron and a vector odderon the corresponding charge-conjugation relations are automatically fulfilled. We compare the model to some experimental data, in particular to data for the total cross sections, in order to determine the model parameters. The model should provide a starting point for a general framework for describing soft high-energy reactions. It should give to experimentalists an easily manageable tool for calculating amplitudes for such reactions and for obtaining predictions which can be compared in detail with data. (C) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.