Forward elastic scattering: dynamical gluon mass and semihard interactions

The role of low- x parton dynamics in dictating the high-energy behavior of forward scattering observables at LHC energies is investigated using a QCD-based model with even-under-crossing amplitude dominance at high-energies. We explore the effects of different sets of pre- and post-LHC fine-tuned parton distributions on the forward quantities σ tot and ρ , from pp and p ¯ p scattering in the interval 10 GeV–13 TeV. We also investigate the role of the leading soft contribution, the low-energy cuttoff, and the energy dependence of the semihard form factor on these observables. We show that in all cases investigated the highly restrictive data on ρ parameter at s = 13 TeV indicate that a crossing-odd component may play a crucial role in forward elastic scattering at the highest energies, namely the Odderon contribution.