Bounds on the Soft Pomeron Intercept

Abstract The Donnachie-Landshoff fit of total cross sections has now become a standard reference for models of total, elastic and diffractive cross-sections. Adopting their philosophy that simple-pole exchanges should account for all data to present energies, we assess the uncertainties on their fits. Our best estimate for the pomeron intercept is 1.096−0.009+0.012, but several models have a good χ2 for intercepts in the range [1.07,1.11].