Pion‐Proton Scattering Verifies Forward Dispersion Relations

A year‐long on‐line computer experiment at the Brookhaven AGS has verified the dispersion relations for forward elastic scattering at energies as high as 29 GeV. The experiment, done by S. J. Lindenbaum, Satoshi Ozaki, Kenneth J. Foley, Roger S. Jones, William A. Love, Edward Platmer, C. A. Quarles and Erich Willen, measured the $π+−p$ and $π−−p$ elastic scattering cross sections from 8 to 26 GeV at 1 to 30 milliradians. (Results were reported at the Coral Gables Conference on Symmetry Principles at High Energies late in January and at the New York APS meeting.) The experiment, according to Lindenbaum, gives one a quantitative crystal ball that looks all the way to infinity.