JETP Letters: issues online

Recent experiments have discovered two exponents in the pp elastic differential cross sections with two different slope parameters, of the order (16-20) GeV^-2 and (4-4.8) GeV^-2 in the regions $-t \lesssim 0.5$ GeV² and $-t \gtrsim 1$ GeV², respectively. We suggest a simple model of the pp elastic scattering with two types of particle exchanges: 1) when the exchanged particle transfers the momentum Q from a quark of the proton p₁ to one quark in another proton p₂, producing the slope B₁; 2) when the transfer occurs from two quarks in the p₁ to two quarks in the p₂, giving the exponent with the slope B₂. The resulting amplitude is proportional to the product of the form factors of two protons, depending on Q, but with different coefficients in the cases 1) and 2). Using the only parameter - the proton charge radius r²_ch= 0.93 fm², one obtains B₁ = 16 GeV^-2, B₂ = 4 GeV^-2 with the strict value of the ratio, $\frac{B_1}{B_2} = 4.0$ , independent of r_ch. These predictions are surprisingly close to the data both in the pp and in the $\bar p p$ differential cross sections. Comparison to experimental data and theoretical approaches is discussed, together with possible implications for the future development of the theory.