Impact-picture phenomenology for $\pi^{\pm}p, K^{\pm}p$ and $pp, \bar p p$ elastic scattering at high energies

Abstract.

We present an extension to $\pi^{\pm} p$ and $K^{\pm} p$ elastic scattering at high energies of the impact-picture phenomenology we first proposed more than twenty years ago, for p p and $\bar p p$ elastic scattering. We show, in particular, that the analytic form of the opacity function for the proton obtained previously is compatible with the experimental results on $\pi p$ and K p elastic s cattering at high energies. It is proposed that $\pi^{\pm}$ and $K^{\pm}$ external beams be provided from CERN-LHC, so that their elastic scattering from protons can be studied at higher energies. Our phenomenology for p p and $\bar p p$ elastic scattering is updated by including new data and we give predictions for future experiments at BNL-RHIC and CERN-LHC.