Critical analysis of derivative dispersion relations at high energies

Abstract We discuss some formal and fundamental aspects related with the replacement of integral dispersion relations by derivative forms, and their practical uses in high energy elastic hadron scattering, in particular pp and p ¯ p scattering. Starting with integral relations with one subtraction and considering parametrizations for the total cross sections belonging to the class of entire functions in the logarithm of the energy, a series of results is deduced and our main conclusions are the following: (1) except for the subtraction constant, the derivative forms do not depend on any additional free parameter; (2) the only approximation in going from integral to derivative relations (at high energies) concerns to assume as zero the lower limit in the integral form; (3) the previous approximation and the subtraction constant affect the fit results at both low and high energies and therefore, the subtraction constant cannot be disregarded; (4) from a practical point of view, for single-pole Pomeron and secondary Reggeons parametrizations and center-of-mass energies above 5 GeV, the derivative relations with the subtraction constant as a free fit parameter are completely equivalent to the integral forms with finite (non-zero) lower limit. A detailed review on the conditions of validity and assumptions related with the replacement of integral by derivative relations is also presented and discussed.