DEEP-ELASTIC pp SCATTERING AT LHC FROM LOW-x GLUONS

Deep-elastic pp scattering at c.m. energy 14 TeV at LHC in the momentum transfer range 4 GeV2 ≲ |t| ≲ 10 GeV2 is planned to be measured by the TOTEM group. We study this process in a model where the deep-elastic scattering is due to a single hard collision of a valence quark from one proton with a valence quark from the other proton. The hard collision originates from the low-x gluon cloud around one valence quark interacting with that of the other. The low-x gluon cloud can be identified as color glass condensate and has size ≃0.3 F. Our prediction is that pp dσ/dt in the large |t| region decreases smoothly as momentum transfer increases. This is in contrast to the prediction of pp dσ/dt with visible oscillations and smaller cross sections by a large number of other models.